


The Greatest Danger

by Cats_Dont_Float



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Anxiety, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Death, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Flashbacks, M/M, Magic, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2020-12-13 22:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21005237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cats_Dont_Float/pseuds/Cats_Dont_Float
Summary: The Strider-Lalonde household is much more than meets the eye. The magic of their family has always been enough to keep them safe. But now prophecies that speak of a danger to come cause them to round up all their friends and allies from across the globe. Caught in the middle of the chaos, Dave Strider struggles to find his place in the battle, whilst dealing with the consequences of the memories of his old life with his Bro, and while also trying to pretend he's not falling in love with the one person he's been told to stay away from.- (on a small hiatus until the new year) -





	1. Harder to Hide Than I Thought

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's what seems to be another normal morning in the Strider-Lalonde household, but Rose, the resident Seer of the household, seems to be hiding something, and whatever she's hiding is messing with Dirk's powers. And who's that boy that's staring through their windows?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All chapter names are hopefully going to be song lyrics (sometimes those songs will have something to do with the chapter, sometimes they'll just be random lyrics that kinda sounded right). This one's from I Wanna Be Yours by Arctic Monkeys. The song doesn't really fit the chapter, but that line did so... (I might change the chapter name at some point)

Everybody in town knew about the Strider-Lalonde family. It was a small town. Not one of those tiny towns with only ten houses and a singular corner shop, but not massive either. A few thousand occupants maybe, and settled in a countryside area so that everything was pretty far from any bigger cities. And so it was hard for anything even remotely interesting to happen without every single person in the surrounding area finding out about it. It was like that when the Strider-Lalonde family first moved into the town.

Everyone in town agreed there was something weird about them. Maybe it was the way they looked; their bright white hair that seemed to shine slightly in sunlight, not to even mention their weird eye colours, where enough to make them look slightly less than human. What people found even weirder was the way the family of four acted, always keeping to themselves, rarely seen outside of their houses, and far more secretive than was normal about every aspect of their life. Most people didn’t even know all of their names. One thing that was somehow found out by somebody was that they were all siblings, with not a single parent or guardian anywhere in sight. The older siblings just seemed to care for the younger ones. And though the youngest were already fourteen when they first moved to the town, the oldest somewhere around eighteen, people in the town still found it odd, and rumours began to swirl around regarding what had happened to their parents.

The youngest two children attended their final few years of schooling in the town, though both were reluctant to befriend anyone in their classes. Teachers reported that the two spent every moment together, whispering and giggling through classes and yet still somehow getting perfect grades.  
Everything about the family was a mystery, and one that the town were, for a time, intent on solving. But the rumours, as rumours always do, grew old and boring, especially after the children graduated from school and the family were seen around even less. Soon, the weird Strider-Lalonde family were old news.

****************

It was quiet in the house when Dave woke up, pulled from a deep, comfortable sleep by bright morning sunlight spilling across his face. It was the first time in a while that he'd gotten a whole night's sleep without a single nightmare, and he was a little reluctant to even open his eyes. He continued to lay there for a few moments, annoyed at himself more than anything for forgetting to close his curtains before falling asleep the night before, which would have saved him from a rude wake up call and the sensation of his light-sensitive eyes stinging being the first thing he awoke to. But squinting through blurry vision at his alarm clock told him that he had only half an hour or so until he would have been woken by that anyway, and so he decided he might as well make good use of the early start, and get himself some breakfast and then get to the shower before some other member of his family claimed the bathroom as their own and used up all the hot water (an almost daily occurrence).

It was a cold morning, winter having officially started a couple of weeks ago and instantly bringing its signature cold weather with it. As he swung his legs sideways out of bed, stifling a yawn, the cold morning air hit him, and he shivered slightly, regretting not wearing warmer clothing to bed. There were, however, clothes piled everywhere on the floor around his room, and it didn’t take him long to locate some that he could throw on quickly just to wear whilst he went to get breakfast. A quick glance in the mirror as he got dressed presented him with the sight of his hair in an uncontrollable mess after a night of deep sleep, and he ran a hand through it a few times pointlessly, unable to stop it sticking out in all directions. With a heavy sigh, he just swept a few parts of it forwards further over his face, then grabbed his shades from their spot by his bedside, sliding them carefully over his red eyes, before finally heading out of his bedroom.

It was still eerily quiet as he walked out along the hallway. He stopped briefly outside his twin sister’s bedroom door, reaching out briefly for the doorknob and then thinking better of it. The door was probably locked anyway, knowing her, and it seemed stupid to pointlessly annoy her by waking her up. Starting the day off with a lecture from an angry, tired Seer was always a bad thing, and he wasn’t about to risk that right now. So he just continued on past her door, and headed down the staircase.  
Down there, he found his first sign of life in the house: a microwave, beeping loudly from within the kitchen. No one seemed to be dealing with it though, and it continued to beep until eventually coming to stop just before Dave stepped into the room. There he found his older brother slumped at the little wooden table in the kitchen, face pressed firmly against it, possibly asleep, but probably just taking a quiet moment to himself.

“Dirk,” Dave said quietly, and spotted his brother’s head move very slightly in what looked like an attempt at a nod. “Dude, microwave,” he added, and Dirk slowly lifted his head to blink at Dave with unfocused, glazed-over eyes. Eventually, Dave’s words seemed to sink in, and he got to his feet quickly, rushing over to pull a bowl of porridge from the microwave. He stared down blankly at it for a second, then carried the bowl back over to his spot at the table.

“You good, dude?” Dave asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Dirk mumbled quietly, “Just got another one of those headaches.”

“Oh,” Dave said, knowing instantly what Dirk meant, and then raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What’s causing that at this time of the morning?”

“Can’t tell,” Dirk said slowly, “I think… it might be Rose?” He shrugged slightly, “There’s just something weird coming from her this morning.”

“Huh,” Dave muttered, not sure what else to say. He guessed he’d just wait until Rose finally dragged herself out of her room, then they’d be able to tell if she was alright. But if Dirk was already struggling this badly with whatever she was feeling then… well it couldn’t be a good sign. And Dave knew his brother well enough to see when a feeling was getting to bad for him to deal with. Right now, the blankness of Dirk’s stare showed clearly that he was completely focused on something else, eyebrows drawn together slightly in pain. Poor kid had been born an Empath as well as a Healer. His head was always slightly too busy with other people’s thoughts and feelings.

Deciding to actually get the breakfast he came downstairs for, Dave turned away from his brother for a while to put two slices of bread into the toaster and start making coffee. As he did this, the house’s loudest inhabitant appeared in her usual fashion, practically skipping into the room and instantly calling out a ‘good morning’ in a voice far too loud for that early time. She rushed at Dave to hug him before he could even protest, almost knocking a mug out of his hand. Luckily, she seemed to notice Dirk’s current state, and was a little calmer with him, just ruffling his hair and saying something quietly to him as she walked past him.

“Make us a coffee, Davey,” she called as she stretched up on her toes to pull boxes of cereal out from a cupboard. He nodded, even though she wasn’t looking in his direction, and got out her favourite mug (the one with the little cats on) to pour her coffee into.

“Better make some of that gross tea Rose likes,” Dirk mumbled.

“Got it!” Roxy declared before Dave could say a word, and then a box of herbal tea hit Dave straight in the side of the head. He turned slowly to fix Roxy with a stern look, even though he was struggling not to smile, and he was glad that his shades were hiding the fact that his eyes would definitely be giving away his actual feelings. Roxy folded her arms across her chest, stared back for a second, then stuck her tongue out him with all the maturity of a five-year-old, before turning to pour herself a bowl of cereal. She started to hum as she did this, and Dave soon picked up on the familiar tune and joined in with her. Despite his headache, it didn’t take long for Dirk to start tapping his fingers along, and soon the house wasn’t quite so quiet as it had been before.

Rose came in a few minutes later, and everyone stopped, because yeah, Dirk had been right. There was definitely something up with her. As usual, she was dressed perfectly, short white hair held in place with her signature black hairband, wearing a small black skirt and a black shirt with a little yellow sun on the front of it.

“Good morning.” There was perfect politeness to the way she greeted her family, as usual, but her voice was slightly strained and her smile looked forced, not to mention the dark circles under her eyes that had been gradually growing over the last few days. Dirk’s head plummeted straight down onto the table again.

“Here you go, Rose,” Roxy said quietly, passing over a mug of tea towards her, which she took, and slowly sipped at for a few seconds. Her smile seemed just slightly more genuine after that.

“I only came down to ask if anyone’s noticed a tarot card laying around,” Rose said as she raised the mug to her face and breathed in the hot steam gently, “Only I’m missing one and I’m quite desperate to do a reading this morning.”

“Mmh, yeah I saw it,” Dirk mumbled into the table, “Umm... ‘s over there.” He gestured with a spoon in the direction of the fridge, and Rose’s expression fell into one of annoyance.  
“Really? Did you think this was funny?” She asked, locating her tarot card where it was pinned to the fridge by a magnet shaped like a dog.

“Yeah, maybe,” Dirk replied, “Just didn’t want it going missing.”

“Not funny, Dirk,” she said, pointing one corner of the card at him, “I’ve told you not to mess with my cards. Not. Funny.” The other three seemed to think otherwise, and she rolled her eyes as she noticed all three of her siblings holding back giggles. “Whatever,” Rose huffed, “I need to go and read my cards. Just… leave me alone for a bit.” She turned on her heel quickly and left the room before anyone could say a thing.

“What’s up with her?” Roxy asked

“Just normal Rose,” Dave shrugged.  


“Mmm, nah,” Dirk mumbled,, “Just… give her a bit and then someone should probably go talk to her. I think she’s been hiding something for the last few days. I don’t know but… something’s off.” There were a few moments of silence between them, and then Roxy gave a small nod.

“She’ll be okay,” she said after a while, “Probably just saw something she didn’t wanna in the cards or something. It’s happened before. She’ll talk when she wants to.” Dave nodded in agreement, Dirk let out a noise that could have meant anything really, and then silence fell over the room again.

Dave filled the silence with soft humming once again, starting to wander around aimlessly as he sipped at what was left of his coffee. He stopped by the window for a second, leaning closer and watching as a bird fluttered down and landed on the frosty grass. He smiled to himself slightly at the sight of it. He’d always had a soft spot for birds, loving the way that they just moved through life so happily. He watched until a cat appeared from nowhere, probably a nearby neighbour’s garden, and startled the bird, his eyes following it as it flew away. Then he turned around, and his eyes fell on something else on the opposite wall that made him smile.

There was a map pinned there that had moved around from house to house with them since he’d first been taken to live with Dirk and Roxy, after they’d managed to get him away from his Bro. He shuddered very slightly at that thought, pushing the memory straight out of his mind and refusing to think about his Bro. He wondered for a second if Rose ever felt that way about her mom. Neither of them had seen their old guardians in years.

He quickly distracted himself from those thoughts by letting his attention turn back to the map, looking at every colourful dot that marked it. Each one showed a different family or person like them, and they were connected by lines. Allies, friends, even what could be considered enemies; all of them were shown on this map. He found the red dot that marked their family, touching a finger to it and feeling a slight buzz of energy from the map, colours shifting slightly under his fingers. Images and voices filled his mind, and he let his subconscious swim in them for a second, before pulling himself back out. If he focused on it enough, he could find certain people. Pressing his finger down hard onto a dot that appeared to be in the middle of the ocean filled his head with the sound of a familiar girl’s laugh, and a man talking in a thick British accent.

“What you looking at, Dave?” Dirk’s voice distracted him, the voices instantly fading from his head, and Dave smirked.

“Just checking in on your boyfriend,” he replied quickly, “And Jade, obviously.”

“Oh,” Dirk said, “Jake.”

“Yes, Jake, your boyfriend,” Dave replied.

“I should call him.”

“Probably.”

“When my head’s better.”

“Okay.”

Their conversation faded to nothing again, and Dave pulled himself away from the map, knowing otherwise he’d end up spending hours just listening to the voices. They weren’t current voices, didn’t show what was happening at that exact moment, more like snapshots of memories that changed every time you tried to access them. Just small reminders of who the people that lived there were. The magic from it was starting to make his hands go numb, and so he headed away from it, turning and finding that Roxy had moved to crouch by Dirk’s side, talking to him quietly.  
“Remember the things we practised,” she said quietly, a hand on Dirk’s shoulder, “Try closing your mind to it.”

“I’m trying,” he muttered back, eyes screwed tightly shut in a way that looked slightly painful.

“Probably trying too hard,” she said with a soft snort of laughter, but even as she said it Dirk’s face visibly relaxed, seeming to have managed to block out some of the emotion he was picking up from wherever. As the two began to talk, a little louder now Dirk’s head was slightly clearer, Dave stepped past them, and headed out of the kitchen, remembering his earlier plan to have a shower, though he figured by now he’d probably missed his chance to get in the bathroom before Rose.

The sound of Roxy’s laughter and Dirk’s soft, rumbling voice followed him as he walked along the hallway and up the stairs. It was darker upstairs in the house, the curtains across the hallway’s only window still pulled closed, and so he headed over to open them and let in the morning light. As he did so, he stepped past Rose’s bedroom, noticing that the door was left half-open, which was unusual for her. Leaning around at a slightly awkward angle, he could just about peer inside, and caught a glimpse of her, hunched over her desk at one side of her room. He watched as she muttered something to herself, raising a tarot card from the desk so the sunlight glanced off of it, and he thought he saw a frown flicker across her face for a second. There was a desperation in the way she placed the card down, and he was instantly worried. Reading the cards was usually calming for Rose, and more than once he’d seen her put into a sort of trance by it as she channeled her magic. But now she seemed anything but calm, and it was unsettling. Even so, he knew there was no point even attempting to bother her whilst she was that distracted, and he made the probably wise choice to forget about it for now and move from his spot in her doorway before he was spotted, and hurried along to his own room.

The door was still left wide open from where he’d left earlier, and he strode in quickly, easily navigating the piles of things abandoned all over the floor. He was just getting a towel from one drawer, when a glimpse of movement in the corner of his vision caught his attention as he stood up. Turning his head slowly, he spotted it again, out on the street beyond his window. Moving towards the glass, Dave pushed the curtain further aside, and peered out.  
There was a boy stood out on the street at the end of the path that lead up to their house, peering up directly at Dave’s window, a hand raised to shield his eyes from the sun.

“What the fuck?” Dave muttered his face scrunched up slightly, confused at the sight, though not overly worried. A few times before, younger kids in the town, having heard rumours about the family, had dared each other to go and investigate the house. But still, he found it a little unnerving to think that this boy had been staring into his room for an unknown amount of time. He was just thinking about whether to call Roxy and get her to go sort it out, when the boy’s head moved very slightly upwards, and he seemed to suddenly notice Dave. He turned his head quickly in a random direction, as if trying to pretend he hadn’t been looking, and then very deliberately started to walk away, picking up the pace as he went until he was basically running as he reached the corner. Dave stared for a while longer until the boy was no longer visible, and then shrugged slightly, deciding instantly that it was nothing to worry about. So he just threw his towel over his shoulder, and strolled back out of the room, thoughts of the boy already drifting from his mind.

By the time he was done showering, it was brighter outside, the chill of winter melting away slightly and the inside of the house far warmer than before. He passed Rose in the hallway as he stepped out of the bathroom, warm drops of water running from his hair and down the sides of his face, and stopped for a second to stare at her.  
“What?” She muttered as Dave threw her a questioning look.

“What’s up? Something wrong?” He asked. He was her twin, after all, and he could tell when things were wrong. And something was definitely up with her.

Rose stared silently for a second more, and then her emotionless expression slipped slightly, showing a hint of fear underneath. “I don’t know,” she admitted quietly, “Maybe.”

“Family meeting?” He suggested calmly.

“Yeah, okay,” she said with a heavy sigh, “Give me half an hour more, though. Just to… check something.”

“You got it,” Dave said. He went to take another step, then turned back and added as an afterthought, “You might wanna try and close your mind down a little, if you can. Whatever you’re feeling is fucking Dirk up.”

“Right, got it,” Rose said with a small nod, all signs of emotion already wiped from her face once again, and then she quickly retreated back into the depths of her room.

Dave stared at the closed door for a second more, feeling a slight twinge of alarm as his mind wandered to guesses of what might be bothering Rose. Trying not to allow himself to get too worried _(Striders don’t get scared, Strider’s don’t get scared, man up little bro)_, he hurried downstairs to talk to Roxy. It was only as he reached the kitchen that he stumbled in shock slightly, realising what he’d just thought: _Strider’s don’t get scared_. It made him feel slightly sick. Because that was what his Bro had always said to him, whenever he cried or expressed any kind of fear.  
_No_, he told himself firmly, _I’m not living by his stupid rules anymore. I’m safe here._  
Trying to keep that thought in his head and swallowing back a wave of nausea, he rushed towards Roxy, and was quick to report what Rose had said. By the time he'd finished, he was too distracted by Roxy's own worry to even focus on the fact that if he thought about it too much, he could still kind of hear his Bro's voice in the back of his mind.

Half an hour later, Rose stepped into the living room, to find all three of her siblings already gathered there.

“Ow, Rose, what the fuck?” Dirk said with a slight gasp, head already in his hands.

“Oh right, yeah, sorry,” Rose muttered, eyes closing for a second as she took in a few deep breaths. The family had gotten good at learning to close their emotions off to Dirk after years of him struggling, and Rose especially was good at it.

“Better?” Rose asked after a few moments, “Can’t feel you in my head so much now.”

“Yeah, that’s a little better,” Dirk replied with a nod. He lifted his head, and fixed her with a stern look. “Now, are you gonna tell us what’s wrong, or do we have to guess?”

Rose stared at him, then sighed softly and moved to sit down next to Dave on the sofa.

“Okay,” Rose said slowly, “For the last...I don’t know, week maybe, I’ve been having weird dreams. I mean prophetic dreams. I’d had about three in my whole life before this, but this week they’ve been pretty much constant. And they’re so… horrible. I can’t even remember much about it, I just know that it’s something to do with us four, and… a danger coming, I think. It's... it's something we've never seen before, and all I can feel is death, and destruction, and pain. I don't know what to do.” She stumbled over the words, the last few practically blurring into one, and the panic in the way she twisted her hands together was obvious.

Dave let out a heavy sigh, reaching out a hand to rest it gently on her shoulder. She looked exhausted, and it made sense now that she had admitted to having been plagued by those dreams all week.

“It’s going to be okay,” Roxy said after a while, “Whatever’s coming our way, we can face it together.” She sounded like she was trying to convince herself as well as the others. “Keep an eye on the cards,” she added, “And whatever else you can. We need to be prepared. And we should get in contact with some others nearby, and global maybe as well. Whatever's coming, there’s a chance it’s just targeting us. But it might be something that’s dangerous to others as well.” As usual, Roxy was quick to take the lead, and her way of making quick decisions was slightly calming, like she had the situation under control.

“So, what do we do right now?” Dirk asked.

“I’m going to talk to some people, Dirk, maybe call Jake, and Dave you should talk to Terezi, she's been helpful before and she could be helpful again,” Roxy said, “All of you just.. Report anything weird you see, okay?” When the other three nodded in agreement, she smiled, then practically vaulted over the back of the sofa, and rushed away.

“I… yeah,” Rose mumbled, “I’m going to go call Kanaya.”

“Your vampire girlfriend?” Dave asked, unable to stop himself from smiling slightly. Whatever sort of relationship Rose had, he was happy for her. The support she got from Kanaya was good for her.

“Yeah," Rose confirmed. She nodded once at her brothers, before disappearing away. The way she could just disappear in and out of rooms so silently and quickly was something Dave could never quite get used to (it reminded him of his Bro sometimes, though he'd never tell her that for fear of upsetting her) and he couldn’t help raising a surprised eyebrow at the way she vanished upstairs. Then he turned to Dirk slowly.

“Feeling any better, dude?” He asked.

“Yeah, things are getting a little quieter now,” Dirk replied, “Rose is calmer, and she feels more… reassured, I think. Urgh I don’t know, she’s always hard to read.” He got to his feet slowly, running his hand through his slightly spiked hair. “I’m going to go talk to Jake,” he said, and Dave didn’t fail to notice the way that Dirk’s face softened slightly at the mention of his boyfriend.

“Yeah, you should do that” Dave said softly, "Say hi to him for me." Dirk smiled at Dave before he left the room, and Dave was quick to follow after him, heading up to his own room.  
As he reached the peace of his own room, he thought over the instructions Roxy had given him. _Report anything weird you see._

And then he remembered the boy he saw outside earlier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, I decided to write another long fic! I've got a bad history of not completing fics, but I'm invested in this au and I plan to do my best with this. Updates should hopefully be regular, though I'm a little busy with classes sometimes. Anyway I hope this fic seems interesting to people, I tried to make this chapter a good summary of what's to come. (There's going to be davekat, a lot of it, for anyone that's interested, just wait a few chapters for that)
> 
> Powers of the characters so far (loosely based on their canon aspects but not really):  
Dave - can stop time and sometimes can rewind it a little  
Rose - Seer, can see into the future and predict different events and their probability of occuring  
Dirk - Empath (can feel people's moods and emotions and occasionally share their thoughts) and also a Healer with healing powers  
Roxy - can create objects (basically just her void powers) and can also use alchemy, though not always very succesfully


	2. Look out to the future, but it tells you nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose's visions get worse, Dave meets a familiar boy on the street, and two familiar faces arrive to try and help protect the Strilondes.
> 
> (chapter title from Icarus by Bastille)

It had been two days since Rose had told them about the dreams, and things hadn’t seemed to be getting any worse. The dreams had stopped, and Rose was actually getting some sleep, though all her attempts at reading the future still came out looking negative. But with no new information, it was easy for them to all fall into a false sense of security, with no signs of anything heading there way to make them feel worried at all.

It was only that afternoon that things started to get worse. Dave strolled leisurely into the kitchen, intending to get himself something to eat, and found Rose there, leaning on her elbows against the kitchen side, a mug clutched in her hands. She didn’t say anything to him as he walked in, didn’t even turn to look at him, but he didn’t find it strange. Him and Rose had a silent relationship a lot of the time. Both of them could ramble for hours at times, but were perfectly comfortable being silent in each other’s presence. It had always been that way, and so Dave thought nothing of the way she completely ignored him. He just carried on his way, assuming she was probably lost in thought and not bothering to disturb her.

But, as he started to dig through one of the cupboards, looking for some food, he heard a soft sound like a gasp, and looked over curiously. As he looked over, he spotted Rose push her mug onto the side before taking a stumbling step backwards. Even from a distance he could see how heavily she was breathing, and her entire body was shaking.

“Rose?” He called softly. When there was no reply, he quickly took a few steps over towards her, just in time to see her legs buckle underneath her. He rushed the last few steps, managing to get his hands under her arms and catch her before she properly hit the floor. Her body was far too limp in his arms, and he was barely able to support her weight with her like that and so after a few seconds, he slowly slid down the wall behind him until he was sitting on the floor with Rose draped messily across his lap. Her head moved sideways as he shifted her in his lap slightly, and he flinched at the way her eyes were rolling back in her head.

“Roxy! Dirk!” He called as loudly as his voice would allow him to, almost screaming and hating how his voice shook. “Roxy! Dirk!” The noise did nothing to effect Rose, not even causing her to stir slightly.

“What?” Roxy’s voice screamed back from somewhere within the house, but he didn’t reply, because he could already hear footsteps heading quickly in his direction. 

A few seconds later, Roxy came around the corner far too quickly, feet sliding on the wooden flooring, and the smile instantly dropped off of her face as she spotted Rose. She fell to her knees, crawling quickly towards them and started to mutter anxiously to herself as she checked her over. Dirk was quick to follow, though he lingered awkwardly in the doorway for a few seconds, watching from a distance. Dave looked up, made eye contact with Dirk, and found his own fear reflected in his brother’s eyes.

“What happened?” Roxy asked, using one hand to turn Rose’s face in her direction.

“I don’t know, she just collapsed,” Dave said, “She seemed… okay, before it all. She was just breathing a bit heavy.” He looked back down at Rose, trying to ignore the fear clutching at his heart. Fear was a weakness, or so he’d been taught at least, and he had to be strong for Rose in that moment. 

“Okay,” Roxy said with a soft nod. She brushed back Rose’s bangs and pressed the back of one hand to her forehead gently. “She’s so cold,” Roxy murmured. Then she looked up, curls of hair falling over her eyes as she did so and having to shake them away to see properly. “Dirk, can you come here?” She called.

Dirk hovered anxiously for a few more seconds, then quickly rushed over and joined the rest of his family on the kitchen floor. His triangular shades were pushed up into his hair, and he pulled them off and tossed them aside as he leaned closer to Rose.

“Feel anything?” Dave asked quietly, watching Dirk’s eyes flickering around as he read Rose’s emotions. 

“Fear,” Dirk said, voice trembling slightly, “So much fear. So much fear that it hurts. And… a sort of emptiness. I’ve never felt anything like it before.” His face was screwed up slightly, a clear sign he was in pain, but he still leaned a little closer to Rose and reached out to brush one thumb over her cheek gently.

“Is there anything you can do?” Roxy asked quietly, reaching out to gently take hold of Dirk’s free hand. He instantly squeezed it tightly, eyes closing as he focused on Rose.

“I don’t think so,” he said eventually, shaking his head as his eyes fluttered open again. “She’s not physically hurt. This isn’t something I have the power to fix.” He moved the hand from Rose’s face to clench it into a fist in frustration, eyes watery.

“It’s okay,” Roxy murmured, “She’ll be okay.” The three of them fell silent for a second, Dave staring down at his sister who was still draped across his lap while the other two stared down hopelessly as well.

The silence was suddenly broken by Rose drawing in a heavy, shuddering breath, and her eyes snapped back down into the right position. Roxy and Dirk instantly reacted, quickly leaning in close and starting to prod her with questions.

“You okay, Rosie?”

“You hurt?”

“What happened?”

“Was it another dream?”

“Guys,” Dave broke through their questioning as Rose blinked slowly up at him in confusion, “Leave her be for a sec.”

“Oh yeah, sorry,” Dirk mumbled, while Roxy just quietly laid a hand on Rose’s arm again and sat there silently.

Eventually, Rose slowly pushed her family’s hands away from her, and sat up, lifting herself up off of Dave’s lap. She slumped by Dave’s side, leaned her head back against the wall behind her, closed her eyes, and let out a trembling sigh.

“Hey, Rosie,” Roxy said after a few seconds, “Everything okay?”

“I… I had a vision, I think,” Rose said, her voice so faint that they all had to lean a little closer to hear her. “There was… blood. A lot of blood. And danger but more than that it was… the end. It was the end.”

“The end of what?” Roxy questioned her a little further.

“The end of everything,” Rose replied. When she opened her eyes again, there were tears gathered in them, and a few slid down her cheeks.

“What do you mean?” Dave asked, looking up and seeing Roxy's face fall into an expression of horror.

“It was just… it wasn’t the end of the world. It was just the end of literally everything. Like every single thing in the universe just vanished in the blink of an eye,” Rose said, “I don’t know how to explain it… there was just an absence of everything! I don’t know!” She threw her hands up before letting them fall down heavily onto her knees.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Dave murmured softly, noting the way that Dirk had flinched back slightly at Rose’s sudden wave of emotion. He reached out, draped one arm around Rose’s shoulder, and pulled her closer to his side. “Calm down,” he said slowly, feeling the way she was trembling and seeing her open her mouth to try and talk again, “You’re gonna just upset yourself more, and you’re already exhausted.”

“Dirk,” Roxy said slowly, “Can I speak to you outside, please?” 

“Uh, yeah,” Dirk muttered, looking confused but getting to his feet anyway. Dave watched the two in confusion, but didn’t question it, focusing on Rose instead.

“Back in a second, you two,” Roxy murmured quietly, bending to gently press a kiss to Rose’s temple before heading out of the kitchen with Dirk. The second they’d left, Rose slumped further sideways, chin resting on Dave’s shoulder, and started to cry quietly. Dave silently pulled her close, wrapping both arms around her, and held her as she started to sob fully.

Meanwhile, Roxy pulled Dirk into the living room, out of sight and earshot of their younger siblings.

“Dirk, we’ve gotta get help,” Roxy hissed quietly, “Rose and Dave don’t seem to realise quite how serious this is, even though Rose has seen it all. The end of everything. There’s been talk of this stuff before, this could be so much worse than we even thought it could be.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Dirk muttered, running a hand through his hair to pull at it slightly in stress, “But how do we tell them that? How do we explain something even we don’t understand? We’re supposed to be keeping them safe, Rox. We can’t fail at that now, not after all these years.”

“We need protection at least, until we can work everything else out,” Roxy said. She thought for a second, biting at her bottom lip gently as she did so. “Jake!” She declared suddenly.

“What?” Dirk asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Jake’s powers are so strong, we could be okay if we had him here. He’s done stuff like that before, right? Protection spells and stuff. It would work for a little while at least. He can bring Jade too, it’ll help keep Dave and Rose a little distracted to have a friend around,” Roxy said, eyes lighting up very slightly as the plan started to form in her mind, “Can you go call him? Like, right now?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Dirk mumbled, “Are you sure he’s our best option, though? I mean, I just wanna make sure we’re doing the best we can I just…”

“Dirk,” Roxy said, cutting out his rambling, “You haven’t got to be anxious about seeing Jake. I know it’s been like six months since you two last met up but… you’ve been dating for years. You two will be fine.”

“Yeah, yeah you’re right,” Dirk mumbled. A tiny smile flickered across his face. “Okay, yeah, I’ll go talk to Jake,” he said, “I’ll tell him we need him here as soon as possible.” He quickly patted Roxy on the shoulder, and then quickly rushed away. Roxy watched him go with a small smile and a nod, and then she walked back towards the kitchen, where Dave and Rose were still huddled together on the floor.

“Hey,” Roxy said, crouching down gently, “Rosie.” Rose shifted, then turned, untangling herself from Dave, and smiled softly when she saw Roxy hold out her arms towards her. Quickly, Rose fell into Roxy’s arms, sniffling now that she had stopped properly crying, and stayed there for a little while.

“Are we going to die?” Rose murmured quietly.

“No, of course not,” Roxy replied.

“Rox, you haven’t seen the things I’ve seen,” she protested, pushing her back very slightly so she could look up at her, “It’s… horrible. And it’s coming for us.” She bit down on her lip, teeth digging in so much she almost drew blood, and then took a deep breath. “I’m scared,” she admitted quietly.

“I know you are,” Roxy murmured, tightening her arms around Rose and rocking her from side to side slowly, “I know. But it’s gonna be okay. These visions are a warning, and they’re giving us a chance to get help and protect ourselves before anything can go wrong.”

“So what are we going to do?” Dave asked quietly.

“Dirk’s upstairs on the phone,” Roxy said quietly, “We’re getting Jake and Jade to come over. Figured Jake should be able to protect us at least a little for now.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good plan,” Dave said, “It’ll be good to see Jade as well. And Dirk’ll be able to feel a little better with Jake to help him.”

“Yeah,” Rose mumbled, “But is it enough?”

“For now, I hope so,” Roxy replied. She sat back slightly, looking at her two younger siblings and smiling at them softly. “You two don’t need to worry, okay? We’re gonna get through this, whatever it is. Now Dave, go down to the corner store and get some popcorn or something, and we’ll all just watch a movie and try and distract ourselves. Jake and Jade’ll be here soon, there’s no point worrying about anything until then. Okay?”

“Yeah,” Dave said, getting up to his feet. He had no idea if movies would be enough to take their minds off of everything, but going down to the store was a good excuse to get out of the house for a while, and he felt a walk was probably a good chance to clear his head.

“Thanks,” Rose said quietly, “That might help to distract me a little bit.” Dave and Roxy both smiled at her as she slowly stood up as well, helping her when she struggled to balance properly. Dave hugged both of them quickly, before he grabbed some money from nearby, and then he headed out of the house to walk to the local store.

*******************

A while later, Dave was walking along the road, a plastic bag with several packs of popcorn inside in his hand, listening to music to try and distract himself from thoughts of Rose and everything she was predicting. He had his head down as he walked, watching his own feet and barely paying attention, and so he didn’t notice the person walking the other direction until he walked straight into them.

“Oh shit, sorry!” Dave took a few steps backwards in alarm, only then looking up at the person he’d just crashed into. Instantly, the boy in front of him looked familiar, though Dave couldn’t work out where he knew him from. His face was twisted into an expression of anger, fists already clenched and face turning red. His eyes were mostly covered by his messy black hair, but from what Dave could see, they were narrowed angrily.

“Watch where you’re going, asshole!” The boy snapped.

“Jeez, dude, I said sorry,” Dave muttered. He stared at the boy for a second more, trying to work out why he was vaguely familiar. Then he recognised him. It was the boy who’d been staring into his window the other day. Instantly he took another step backwards, only then really remembering seeing him staring at him, and realising he probably should have told his family.

“Yeah, well, you should pay more fucking attention,” the other boy was still grumbling.

“I’ve gotta go,” Dave said slowly, before quickly going to step past the other boy. Instantly, there was a hand around his wrist, holding him in place. Panic rose in his throat, chest tightening, and Dave spun around, hand reaching for a sword that wasn’t there. He closed his eyes, head instantly filled with images of his Bro, sword raised, mouth twisted into a cruel, voice echoing in his head. His breathing hitched a little, and he let the boy pull him towards him, eyes still closed, waiting for whatever was about to come.

“I… it was you I was staring at the other day, wasn’t it?” The boy mumbled awkwardly. Dave’s eyes flew open, and he raised an eyebrow, though it was invisible to the boy due to his shades. The boy didn’t seem to have noticed Dave’s panic at all. “Look, I’m sorry,” the kid kept talking, “I’m new to the area and I was just looking around and… I don’t know. Sorry.”

Dave was still struggling to breathe properly with the boy’s hands clenching his wrist like that, but he managed to choke out a quick, “It’s cool, dude, whatever.”

“Right, I, uh, well, I should be going,” he mumbled, and then quickly released Dave’s wrist. He pulled his arm back quickly, trying to calm his nerves, glancing away from him.

“Uh, yeah, see you around,” Dave muttered. The other boy was about to walk away when Dave quickly called out, “Wait, what’s your name?”

The boy turned, and the hint of a smile touched the edges of his mouth. “Karkat,” he replied, “Karkat Vantas.”

Dave grinned. “Nice to meet you Karkat,” he said,” The name’s Dave Strider.” Karkat smiled a little at that, and it lit his entire face up. Dave raised a still slightly shaky hand in a wave, and then turned to walk away slowly. By the time he got home, he’d completely calmed himself after his slight panic at being grabbed by Karkat, and at that point all he could think about was the boy he’d just met. He knew he should still be slightly worried that Karkat had been staring into his window, but mostly all he could think about was the way that Karkat’s eyes had shone a little bit when he smiled. Dave screwed his face up a little at that thought, wondering why Karkat’s face and voice were lingering so much in his head. Then he stepped into the house, and was instantly distracted by his family.

It didn’t take long for them to get the popcorn ready, and Rose had already chosen and set up a movie. Dirk and Roxy spread themselves out on one sofa, Rose and Dave taking the other, and for the next two hours the room was mostly silent as all of them allowed themselves to be distracted by the movie. Dave made a few small comments about the movie, as he always did, earning him a pillow thrown at him by Rose and a roll of Roxy’s eyes. Dirk was quiet, but laughed softly at a few of Dave’s jokes, though he didn’t seem to be watching everything and it was unclear with his shades over his eyes how much attention he was actually paying to the movie. By the time the credits started to roll, there were no thoughts of future danger of Karkat in Dave’s head.

But, as he was helping Roxy to clear the living room, whilst Dirk and Rose did something in the kitchen, Dave’s thoughts drifted back to Karkat. He couldn’t help feeling just a little guilty for hiding it from his family, especially when they were in a time of danger, and so after a few moments of silence he decided he should probably tell her.

“Hey, Rox,” Dave said as he stacked up the empty popcorn bowls, “I forgot to tell you this, but a few days ago there was some kid staring into my window. He saw me and got spooked and ran.” He shrugged, scooping up a cushion that had fallen to the floor and throwing it back onto the sofa.

“What?” Roxy snapped, spinning to face him.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine though,” Dave said, waving it off with one hand, “I ran into him today. Turns out he’s just some new kid to the town who was looking around or something. Name’s Karkat.”

“Karkat?” Roxy said, poking the tip of her tongue out her mouth as she thought for a second. “I feel like I’ve heard that name before. You don’t think he’s a threat?”

“He’s a kid. Maybe my age, maybe younger, I don’t know. He can’t be a threat,” Dave said.

“Well… I’m still gonna look into it,” Roxy said, “That’s… weird. Could just be an odd kid with bad timing but I don’t know. Best to be safe. You sure it was Karkat… not something else similar? I feel like I know someone with a name like that.” She was mumbling mostly to herself by that point. 

“Pretty sure he said Karkat,” Dave shrugged again, “That’s what I heard anyway”. He picked up the popcorn bowls, and left Roxy behind in the living room, carrying them out to the kitchen. He was sure Karkat was probably just some normal, weird kid, but if Roxy wanted to look into it, he wasn’t going to stop her. If she could get a little reassurance from making sure they were safe then that was surely a good thing.

Dave headed up to his own room a while later, collapsing down onto his bed and pulling his headphones over his ears. He pressed shuffle, and smiled as a familiar song started to play, tapping his fingers on the pillow along to the beat and closing his eyes. He heard the muffled sound of Dirk’s bedroom door shutting, and could just about hear Rose moving around in her room, but soon he was focused on nothing but the music. He could almost fall asleep, comforted by the beat. One song played over into the next, the tunes blurring together, familiar lyrics filling his head and distracting him from all other possible thoughts.

He was pulled from his music by a distant sound, like something falling heavily downstairs, and slowly sat up, lifting one ear of the headphones to listen out for any more noise.

“Hello?” A voice called, and his chest instantly tightened in panic. “Hello?” Huh. That sounded familiar. He had already stopped his music, and was heading towards the bedroom door, when he heard a barking from somewhere in the house, and then one of Roxy’s familiar squeals of excitement. 

“Dirk! Dave! Rose! Get down here!” Roxy shouted up from downstairs, “Jade and Jake are here!” The realisation of what was going on hit Dave, and he smiled, instantly rushing out and down the stairs. 

There were two familiar people stood in the hallway of the house, the huge white creature they called their ‘dog’ bouncing around excitedly between them. (Dave refused to accept that Bec was a dog. No normal dog should be able to teleport like he did).

“Dave!” Jade squealed instantly, flinging herself at him excitedly in a weirdly tight hug. She’d gotten taller since he’d last seen her, and stronger too judging by the way she was crushing him. When she stepped back away from him, he got a chance to properly look at her. Even when they were much younger, Jade had always looked weirdly powerful in some sort of way, and now she did even more so. Her curly hair exploded around her like a mane, swinging around her as she moved, dark tanned skin flushed slightly as she beamed excitedly, and there was a shine in her eyes that looked slightly unnatural, the only real sign that she was anything other than a normal human. She was still dressed as she always did though, a black skirt and shirt with a simple design on it, and he smiled to see that there were still those coloured strings around her fingers that reminded her of things she had to do. It had been so long since he’d seen her, but she was still the bubbly, excited girl he’d always known, despite how much Roxy had been telling him recently about how Jade’s powers were growing. He didn’t get long to look at his friend, though, because Rose came downstairs at that second, and Jade sprinted over to hug her too.

Rose politely accepted the hug, wrapping her own arms around Jade, and Dave could see Rose smiling faintly to herself. When she eventually broke the embrace, Rose stepped back, smoothing down her clothes with the palms of her hands in a nervous sort of way, and then raised one hand in a small greeting in Jake’s direction. Jake waved back a hello at her, turned to grin at Dave, and was then distracted as Dirk appeared, walking down the stairs and tugging at the bottom of his shirt awkwardly. Jake’s face instantly lit up.

“Dirk!” Jake called out to him, and gently pushed Bec away from him so he could step through the small gathered crowd and wrap Dirk in a hug even tighter than Jade’s. Dirk clung to him tightly, gripping at the back of Jake’s shirt and burying his face in his shoulder in complete silence. Everyone else in the room was silent too, watching fondly as the two of them clung desperately to each other. It was obvious to all of them how much the two had missed each other, and no one wanted to ruin the moment between the two. When Dirk eventually moved his head slightly too look up, Jake leaned in to press a kiss to his forehead gently, the most affection either of them were comfortable with whilst others were watching, and murmured something that no one else heard but made Dirk blush and laugh softly before pressing his face back into Jake’s shoulder. Dave glanced over at Roxy, and the two both made similar faces of mock disgust at each other, though Dave really was glad to see his brother already looking so much happier.

“Well,” Jake said eventually, Dirk now pressed firmly against his side and held there with one arm around his waist, “It’s lovely to see you all again, but I believe we have things to discuss.”

“Nuh uh,” Roxy said with a shake of her head, “I know all too well that teleporting here must have been exhausting. All six of us are going to have dinner and then you both need sleep. We can discuss everything in the morning.” She fixed them with a stern glare, despite the small smile she was suppressing. “Besides,” she added fondly, “It’s good to have you here. For a little while, let's just enjoy being with friends. Alright?”

“Yeah, that sounds good to me,” Jake said, glancing down briefly at Dirk with a soft look in his eyes.

“Good, I’m cooking,” Roxy declared, “You lot all go sit down and talk or whatever.” She turned firmly on her heel, striding off towards the kitchen with purpose, and both Jade and Jake stared after her curiously.

“She likes playing the ‘mom’ role,” Dave explained with a shrug. He did what Roxy said, moving into the living room and dropping down onto one sofa. Jade was quick to follow, falling down tiredly by his side, and Rose politely sat down on the last space of room on Jade’s other side. 

“It’s so good to see you both again,” Jade said with a smile,“Even if it is for slightly scary reasons.” A darkness clouded her bright eyes for a second, eyebrows creasing in worry, but she quickly shrugged it off.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Rose said with a nod, “We can make this into a positive thing, I’m sure.” She pulled her legs up onto the sofa, curling in on herself slightly, and there was silence for a little while, in which Jade slowly looked between her two friends, a smile back on her face.

“So, Jade, how’s life?” Dave asked after a while. It had been almost a year since he’d last seen her, and a lot had happened in her life. She talked for a while about plants, and gardening, and science experiments, most of which he didn’t understand, but he loved the way she explained it with such passion anyway, arms waving around as she talked. Just as she finished talking, trailing off into silence, Dirk and Jake finally joined them in the living room, seating themselves down on the empty sofa and leaning against each other.

“Nice of you to join us,” Rose said with a slight smirk. Dirk just glowered at her slightly, though the expression was soon wiped off of his face by Jake kissing his cheek. Jade let out a small laugh, rolling her head over onto Dave’s shoulder, and even Rose let herself smile fondly. It had been so long since he’d seen Jade and Jake, that for a while Dave was happy to do nothing but enjoy their company. 

Jade had been one of his best friends for years, and some of his best memories of the first few years living with his siblings were from during Jade’s visits. They’d always had sleepovers together, and gotten closer than Dave had ever really been to anyone before at that point in his life. At a point, he’d wondered if maybe that was what people called a crush, or love, but for him and Jade friendship had always been the best option rather than any sort of romance. Even so, as he sat there, with her leaning against his side, her laugh echoing in his ears as she teased Jake, he couldn’t help feeling happier than he had done in ages. And he thought that maybe, just maybe, whatever the future had in store for them wouldn’t be so bad if they had their friends by their side.

A while later, Roxy served up dinner, and the group ate in the living room, the six of them squashed together on the two sofas. Even as they ate, Jade was yawning widely, and Jake was trying to hide his tiredness by hiding his face in Dirk’s hair. Even Bec seemed exhausted, curled up on the floor by Jade’s feet, occasionally making small yapping noises but not doing much else besides. It was mostly silent while they ate, people occasionally starting small talk or discussing things they’d been doing recently. But it was obvious that everyone was trying to ignore the elephant in the room, and Rose looked slightly uncomfortable, biting at her thumb nail distractedly in the silence of the room.

It was as they were finishing up their dinner and clearing away their plates that it happened again. One second Rose seemed fine, the next she was crumpled in a heap on the floor, eyes rolling back and shaking very slightly.

“Uh, woah, what do we do?” Jake said, instantly panicking, taking a few rushed steps towards Rose and standing awkwardly there as if he had no idea what to do.

“Leave her, dude, she’ll be fine,” Dave said quietly, biting at his lip, “Give it like ten minutes.”

Jade peered a little closer nervously. “Are you sure? She looks really ill.”

“It’s just visions,” Roxy said through gritted teeth, “I wish this wouldn’t happen to her.” She crouched, moving a hand to rest it on Rose’s arm, looking down at her with teary eyes. “She’s too young for this,” Roxy whispered quietly. Jake laid a comforting hand on Roxy’s shoulder, squeezing it gently, and looked down at Rose over her shoulder.

“She’s strong, Rox,” Jake said quietly, “She’ll be okay.”

“This could really mess with her head, what if…” Roxy trailed off slowly, “You’ve seen what happens to other Seers who get plagued by visions like this.”

“It won’t happen to Rose,” he replied, “We won’t let it. Right, guys?”

“Right,” Dirk said firmly, voice louder than Dave had heard it in weeks, “Nothing’s gonna hurt our Rose.”

“Yeah, nothing’s happening with us here,” Jade murmured quietly, moving to stand a little closer to Dave’s side and held out her hand to hold onto his. He smiled gratefully at her, and the group huddled together for the next few minutes, silently watching, barely breathing, as they waited. 

Then Rose sat up, body lurching with the sudden movement, head snapping upwards as he eyes flicked back into the usual place. In an instant Roxy and Jake were on either side of her, holding her up as she continued to shake slightly. Everyone was quiet for a few seconds, just waiting and giving Rose a few seconds.

“Know anymore about the future, Rose?” Jake asked softly after a few moments, when she seemed to have calmed herself slightly.  
She looked over at him, biting down on her trembling lower lip. “All I see is darkness,” was her only reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That part where Jake whispers something to Dirk?? Yeah, he tells him 'I love you'. Dirk's too anxious to say it back a lot of the time, but Jake knows he means it.
> 
> Jade and Jake's powers are vague in this part but Jade has pretty much just her space powers, and Jake can sort of channel positive energies into something really powerful


	3. Don't turn away now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake casts a protective spell around the house to try and protect them. A sudden realisation from Roxy about the new kid in town reveals what might be the danger that's going to threaten them.

Only a short while after Rose’s second vision, Jade and Jake’s exhaustion became even more obvious to the group. They were all still standing around in the kitchen, discussing plans for the next day, and protection spells that Jake might be able to cast around their house to try and protect them in some way. But Jake was leaning back against the wall, struggling to keep his eyes open, and Jade kept yawning widely, trying to stifle them but being unable to. The teleportation they’d used to travel there was starting to catch up to them, their bodies unable to fully cope with the effects of travelling so far so quickly, and neither of them were really paying much attention to anything anymore. Rose was tired too, sat at the kitchen table with her head in her hands, and everyone else was trying their best to stay as focused on the topic at hand as they possibly could.

“We should all get some sleep,” Roxy said after a while, making probably the best decision anyone had made in a while, “We’ve got a lot to work out in the morning.” She was answered by several murmurs of agreement. Rose was quick to get up to her feet, calling a quiet goodbye as she left. Jade would usually sleep in Rose’s room, but they’d figured it was better for her to stay with Dave for a while, especially whilst they had no idea what was going to happen in Rose’s dreams. And so, when the rest of the headed upstairs a few moments later (Roxy staying downstairs a few minutes longer to triple check that all the doors were locked) Dave led Jade along to his own bedroom.

It was quiet upstairs as everybody got ready for bed, only the faint sounds of people murmuring to each other and moving around in their rooms filling the otherwise silent house. Dave quickly set up a makeshift bed on the floor by the side of his bed for Jade, piling spare blankets and pillows on top of an old inflatable mattress, left over from that one time Roxy had convinced them all to go camping. Whilst he did that, Jade wandered along to use the bathroom whilst it was free, changing into her pyjamas, brushing her teeth and teasing the main few tangles from her hair. When she got back, Dave was already stretched out across his bed in his own pyjamas, scrolling through messages on his phone in the dim room.

“Hey,” he said, looking up as she walked in, “Sorry the bed’s not so good, we’ll sort it out properly tomorrow.”

“It’s fine,” Jade said with a small smile, flopping down onto the pile of blankets and pillows and curling up into a small ball. She peered up at him from the floor, smiling tiredly from underneath the mess of hair that had fallen over her face, and he smiled back at her fondly. Looking down at her reminded him of when he first became friends with her (when he’d first gone to live with Dirk and Roxy), and the two of them would have sleepovers at each other’s houses all of the time. The two of them would spend hours laying on the floor of Jade’s bedroom, watching movies together and giggling amongst themselves. Rose would come occasionally too, and the three always got along well.

“Night, Jade,” he called softly after a while, reaching over to flick off the lamp beside his bed. The room was instantly plunged into darkness, and he flinched slightly, pulling his shades off to try and make his vision a little better in the room. There was no reply from Jade; she was already asleep. So he just smiled to himself in the darkness, and rolled over to bury his face in the pillows. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep as well.

****************

Dave woke up at some point in the middle of the night, sitting up in bed far too fast, heart racing and hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. He could just about still feel the fear from whatever dream he’d been having, and as he sat there in the darkness of his room, listening to the sound of Jade breathing softly in her sleep, he couldn’t stop himself from starting to panic slightly. Memories of his Bro (he was sure that was what the dream had been about; they always were), swirled around in his head, and the shadows in the corners of his bedroom started to twist in front of his eyes, until he was sure he could see the glint of a sword or the outline of a puppet in the darkness He pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs and curling in on himself. Still, the waves of panic started to get overwhelming until it got unbearable, and after a few minutes, he swung his legs around off of the edge of the bed and got to his feet slowly, desperate to get away from the room. He could just about see Jade’s outline on the floor, covered by blankets and still fast asleep, and he was careful to quietly tiptoe around her as he headed for the door.

Out in the hallway, it was still dark, and he shuddered at the sight of all the darkened doorways, each one possibly hiding dangers that could jump out of him. He kept to the very centre of the hallway to keep himself away from any dangers that could be thrown his way. Dirk’s bedroom was opposite his, and the door was half open, letting out a small amount of light from a lamp on somewhere inside the room. Dave used the dim light from inside Dirk’s room to guide him as he wandered downstairs, trying to ignore the looming shadows and weird noises from within the house. 

When he eventually reached the kitchen, he flicked on the light, wincing at the bright light and wishing he’d remembered to bring his shades with him from his bedroom. His eyes, always sensitive to bright light and even more so after having been in the dark for a while, stung, and he put a hand up over his eyes for a second as they adjusted. The walk in the darkness of the house had done nothing to help the leftover anxiety and panic from his dream, and so he quickly filled a glass with some water and sipped at it slowly, leaning backwards against the wall with a sigh. He focused on his breathing for a second in the way that Roxy had taught him, until he wasn't so panicked anymore, though he could still feel the fear gripping slightly at the edge of his mind. Once his brain was a little less full of anxiety, his thoughts drifted to the events of the last few days, and he sighed softly. Everyone else was so worried about what was happening that he didn't think it was worth worrying them more by telling them just how anxious he was as well. So he'd figured it was easier to just pretend he was fine around his family, though now the panic from the day was catching up to him a little. after a childhood of fear, just the mention of being danger was enough to send him into a slight spiral, and though he'd done his best to ignore it for the last day or so, now he could feel it catching up to him. He managed to distract himself though, and slowly started to calm himself. After a few moments of standing there, he started to hear small noises from the house, and flinched slightly, panicking again, a few drops of water falling from the glass as his hands shook. 

It’s nothing, he thought to himself, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it. But the small noises got louder, and he soon recognised them for what they were: footsteps. Instantly, he panicked more, and stepped backwards until his back pressed into the wall. Despite knowing deep down that he was probably okay, he couldn't help worrying, sure that his Bro was about to come around the corner and attack him. He took a deep breath, trying to tell himself that of course it wasn’t his Bro coming to find him. Even so, by the time whoever it was reached the kitchen, Dave had his eyes pressed tightly shut, trying to focus on his breathing.

“Hey pal,” a familiar voice said, and Dave's eyes flew wide open. Jake was standing a little too close to him for his liking, looking slightly concerned and rubbing at his face tiredly. 

“Oh, hi Jake,” he mumbled, relieved it wasn’t Rose or someone who would probably want to completely analyse his dreams and the reasons he was awake. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself, and then took a sip of water from his glass with a sigh.

“Are you feeling okay? You don’t look quite alright,” Jake said quietly, “Want to talk?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Dave said, not wanting to even think about it again or talk about it, “Just a nightmare, you know?"

Jake smiled sympathetically. If that had come from anybody else, Dave probably would have found it a little patronising, but from Jake he knew it was nothing but genuine friendliness. Jake had always been a great person, and Dave was always glad Dirk had met him all those years ago, for the sake of Dirk and his entire family.

“What about you?” Dave asked as Jake silently wandered over to make a drink for himself.

“Oh I was just having a bit of trouble getting to sleep,” Jake shrugged, “You know how it is sometimes when you’re sleeping in a new place. Dirk fell asleep and I felt strange alone in that room."

“Oh” Dave muttered. The two were then silent for a little while, both of them standing around and sipping at their drinks and occasionally looking up at each other. “So… how’s things with you and Dirk?” Dave asked after a while, thinking he should probably say something.

Jake smiled widely in a way that lit up his whole face. “It’s really good,” he said, still smiling to himself, “We haven’t seen in each other in so long… it’s just great to actually be near him again.” He looked down at his drink to smile softly, then asked, “What about you? Started dating anyone since I last visited?”

“Huh, no,” Dave said with a soft laugh, “Not for me. Relationships aren’t really something I’m good at. I’ve got too many of my own issues anyway.” He looked away, realising he’d revealed slightly too much.  
“You’re gonna be okay, Dave,” Jake said gently, “I know you’re worried, and I know that the things that happened to you were awful, but you’re not broken. You’re not unlovable. Things’ll get better, it’s just gonna take time. You’ve already gotten so much better since you first came to live here. And what your Bro did… well it doesn’t define you.”

Dave smiled faintly, though he didn’t exactly believe what Jake was saying. For the first years of his life, his Bro had tried to turn him into a monster just like he was, teaching him to hurt and use people. It was hard for him to believe he could ever be a good person, or that anybody would ever see him as such. But it was nice to know that at least Jake seemed to have some faith in his.

“Thanks, Jake,” he muttered eventually.

“No problem, chap,” Jake replied, cocking his head to one side curiously, as if he could see what Dave was really thinking. “I suppose I should be getting back to bed soon before a certain other Strider realises I’m missing,” he added after a while with a small laugh, “Are you going to go back to bed or am I going to be leaving you here alone in the kitchen?”

Dave sighed softly. “I don’t know… sometimes when I have a nightmare I just don’t wanna be alone in my room.”

“Jade’s there,” Jake pointed out, “And you need to get some sleep. It’s gonna be a hard day tomorrow.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right, actually,” Dave shrugged. “Yeah, maybe I should just go try to get back to sleep.” He glanced back out at the dark hallway and gulped slightly, remembering his walk down to the kitchen.

“Come on then,” Jake said, letting one hand fall heavily down onto Dave’s shoulder in a way that was completely friendly but made him flinch slightly anyway. “I’ll walk back upstairs with you.”

“Thanks,” Dave said with a soft sigh of relief. He slid his empty glass onto the kitchen side, telling himself he’d sort it out in the morning, and then allowed Jake to lead him out of the kitchen and into the darkened hallway. He was grateful for Jake’s presence, and always had been. Jake had done so much for him and all of his family, especially in the last few years, and whenever he was around it made Dave feel just slightly more safe than he usually did. The two made their way upstairs together, silent as they walked, until they reached Dave’s bedroom door.

“Sleep well, Dave,” Jake said quietly as they reached there, “Remember you’re safe now, yeah? I’ll see you in the morning.” His smile was only just visible in the dim light, and then he turned softly and wandered away to Dirk’s bedroom. Dave watched as Jake pushed open the bedroom door and then closed it gently behind him, blocking out any light from the lamp inside Dirk’s room. And once the hall was completely dark, Dave quickly stepped into his own room and crawled over onto his own bed, trying to keep Jake’s words of advice in his head.

“Dave?” A quiet voice murmured, and Dave sighed very softly.

“Go back to sleep, Jade,” he whispered into the darkness, “I’m okay.”

“Alright,” she mumbled sleepily, and he could tell she was barely even awake from the way she was speaking. He heard the soft rustling sound of her rolling back over under her blankets, and then there was nothing but silence, and he figured she must have already fallen asleep. Dave smiled faintly to himself, and burrowed back under his own covers. As he laid there, he heard Jade mumble something very quietly in her sleep, and the sound was just a slight reminder to him that yeah, he wasn’t alone anymore. He was safe. He smiled at that thought as he slowly slipped back into sleep. 

*************

When morning came around, he was woken by Jade shaking his shoulder. He sat up a little too quickly than necessary, eyes already wide open. Jade took a quick step back from the side of his bed.

“Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to panic you,” she said, “But come on, there’s stuff to do.”

“What?” Dave mumbled, trying to work out exactly what was going on.

“Come on!” Jade said, reaching out and grabbing onto one of Dave’s arms, “Jake’s gonna do magic!” There was a glint of excitement in her eyes, and she hopped up onto the end of his bed to try and drag the covers off of him.

“Jake’s doing magic?” Dave asked, raising one eyebrow curiously, “Huh.” He’d never seen Jake practice magic before, and as far as he was aware, he didn’t cast spells much.His magic wasn’t exactly normal, and so he didn’t use it much.

“Yeah,” Jade grinned, “Now go get ready!”

“Yeah, yeah, alright,” he muttered, pushing the covers back and sliding his legs out of bed, letting out a yawn as he did so. As he got out of bed, he finally got a chance to get a good look at Jade. She’d showered already, her wet hair hanging around her, and she was dressed in a blue dress and thigh-high black socks. She looked far too awake and neatly dressed for this early in the morning.

“Anyone in the shower?” He asked, crouching by one of his drawers to dig through it for some clothes for the day. 

“I think everyone else is already downstairs,” Jade said with a shrug, “Shower’s probably free.”

“Cool,” Dave said, folding some clothes across his arm and getting to his feet again. “I’ll meet you downstairs in a bit.” She nodded, calling out a ‘bye’ as he stepped out of the bedroom and headed towards the bathroom.

He was as quick as possible in the bathroom, showering quickly and then styling his hair in the fogged-up mirror. The lenses of his shades were misty too from the hot water, and he wiped them quickly on the sleeve of his shirt before pushing them onto his face. After a quick glance in the mirror to determine that he was looking okay, he stepped out of the bathroom, ran a hand through his damp hair one last time, and then headed downstairs, throwing his old clothes and towel into a pile on his bed as he went past his bedroom. 

Downstairs, he found Dirk and Jake curled up together on one sofa in the living room, talking quietly to each other. He smiled at the sight of them, hovering by the doorway for a second to watch them, then quickly stepped past the room before they could see him, and followed the sound of voices to the kitchen. He found all three girls gathered by the kitchen table, stacking pancakes onto plates. Roxy and Jade were giggling slightly as they poured syrup over pancakes, and Rose was watching them with a small amused smile.

“Morning,” Dave said, stepping up behind the three of them and peering over Roxy’s shoulder.

Roxy turned to peer up at him with a smile. “Hey,” she said, “Want pancakes?”

“You know I do,” Dave laughed, grabbing a plate that Roxy passed over to him. He grabbed his own stack of pancakes, piling them up onto his plate, and then followed Jade as she headed into the living room. Roxy and Rose were quickly to follow them.

Jade, Rose and Dave sat down together on the one empty sofa, whilst Roxy shoved Jake and Dirk aside slightly to sit down on the other sofa with them. Dirk and Jake already had plates of pancakes in their hands, half-eaten and mostly forgotten about as they sat there. They are mostly in silence, but eventually a conversation started about the plans to use Jake’s magic.

“I can cast a protective spell to surround the house,” Jake said, taking a last bite of pancakes before pushing his plate onto the coffee table. “It’ll probably be enough to protect you for now, though if this danger gets stronger I can’t promise it’ll be good enough.”

“It’s perfect for now,” Roxy said with a smile, “Thank you, Jakey.”

Jake laughed fondly at the nickname, and leaned back against Dirk’s side. “Well, I’ll try my very best to protect your family,” Jake said quietly. Dirk reached around to take hold of one of Jake’s hands, squeezing it gently.

“We know you will,” Dirk murmured quietly, resting his head on Jake’s shoulder. Jake smiled, leaning his own head sideways to rest it on top of Dirk’s. Dave glanced over to roll his eyes at Jade, but she was just smiling fondly at Jake and Dirk, hands clasped together on her lap. So Dave just let out a small laugh, and got to his feet slowly, gathering up empty plates, and took them out to the kitchen. As he stacked them on the side by the sink, Roxy came into the kitchen.

“Hey,” she said, stepping up beside him, “How are you doing?”

Dave turned to her in surprise. “Me? I’m fine,” he said with a shrug, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Dave,” Roxy said firmly, “Everyone’s worried. And it’s understandable if you are.”

“I’m fine, Rox,” he sighed, “Now, what do we need to do to get ready for this magic of Jake’s?”

Roxy stared at him for a second more, then nodded slightly. “Alright,” she said, “Let’s go talk to Jake and see what needs to be done.”

************

Ten minutes later, there was a huge piece of paper spread out across the kitchen table, and they were all gathered around it. Jake had drawn out a crude diagram of the house, and was sketching out magical borders that he could place around it. He stopped at point, pencil still grasped loosely in his hand as he looked down at the paper thoughtfully.

“I think I’ve got it,” he said with a nod after a few seconds, “I can put up a protective border around your house that should keep out anyone unless they’re invited in. It should protect you from attackers but seeing as we don’t know what this danger is, it might not necessarily work. It’s the best I can do for now, though.”

“Okay,” Roxy said with a nod, “So… are we doing this right now?”

“Best to do it as soon as possible,” Jake said, rolling up the piece of paper and tucking it under his arm gently. “We should go outside to do this,” he added. Rose was quick to get to her feet and open up the back door that led out into the garden.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Roxy said with a nod. She walked over to where Rose was by the door, and the two headed out into the garden, followed closely by Dave and Jade. Jake followed after them quickly, but was stopped by Dirk grabbing his wrist from behind and gently pulling him back towards him.

“Hey,” Dirk said quietly and slightly awkwardly, “I can feel how nervous you are. Gonna be okay?”

“I’m fine,” Jake said with a nod, “It’s just… I can’t fail this. Gotta keep you guys safe, and I just hope I can do good enough.”

“You will,” Dirk said gently, “I know it. You’re so strong, Jake. And even if you can’t do it, we’re all still so happy you’re here and that you’re trying your best for us.” 

Jake let out a heavy sigh, and slowly leaned his head forwards to rest his forehead against Dirk’s. Dirk wrapped his arms tightly around Jake, pulling him in even closer, and the two were silent for a few moments as they stayed there. 

“I love you,” Jake murmured quietly after a second, “I’m going to do this for you and your family.”

“I know you will,” Dirk said softly. “I love you too,” he added quietly, noticing the way Jake’s entire face lit up at that. He turned his head to nuzzle his face into Jake’s cheek, then reached up to press a kiss to his temple quickly before stepping back from him and reaching for his hand instead. “Let’s do this, yeah?” He said.

“Yeah,” Jake said with a firm nod. He turned towards the door, and the two headed outside together quietly. They walked towards where the others were gathered near the centre of the garden, Jake squeezing Dirk’s hand until he eventually had to let go so he could step over to talk to the others. 

“Okay,” Jake said as he reached the others, and took a few steps away from them before crouching. “I’m gonna need silence whilst I do this so I can concentrate.”

“What are you actually going to do?” Roxy asked as Jake poked at the ground with his hands gently, frowning as he did so.

“My powers allow me to channel the positive energies in the area,” Jake said, “I’m hoping by tapping into all the happinessand good memories here, I can create a protective barrier out of it.” 

“Sounds good,” Roxy said with a small nod, “We’ll give you the silence to do it.”

“Thank you,” Jake said with a nod. He looked down then, pressed the palms of both of his hands into the ground, and closed his eyes tightly. His hands started shake very slightly, and the movement slowly travelled up his arms and throughout his entire body. A dim light started to glow from under his skin, growing brighter as he concentrated. Jade pressed a little closer to Dave’s side, and when glanced over he saw that she was staring at Jake in a mixture of awe and worry. Dave reached out a hand in her direction, and she wordlessly took it, squeezing it tightly. He watched as Jade reached out her other hand to grab onto Rose, and soon the three were huddled close together, watching as Jake grew so bright that it was almost impossible to see him properly. Roxy and Dirk were pressed against each other too, Dirk’s face screwed up as he read whatever emotions Jake was feeling at that point.

There was a sudden explosion of light outwards from Jake, and Dave quickly raised his free hand to throw his arm across his face, eyes already burning despite the shades covering them. The others let out similar hisses as the light hit them too, and then, as quickly as it had appeared, it faded away. As the light receded back towards Jake, he reached one hand sideways to try and balance himself, legs shaking underneath him where he’d been crouched for so long. Within seconds, Dirk dropped onto his knees on the floor by Jake’s side, holding out his arms and catching him as he feel sideways.

“Jake?” Dirk said quietly, using one hand to brush Jake’s hair back from his face.

Jake laid completely still in his arms for a few seconds, then his eyes fluttered open, and he grinned wearily. “Hey babe,” he muttered, “Thanks for catching me.”

Dirk laughed softly. “Sure thing, man.”

“Jake,” Roxy said,crouching by them, “Did you…?”

“It’s done,” he said, “You should be safe, for a while at least. I can’t promise it’ll hold forever, or protect you against everything but… it might just be enough for now.”

“Thank you, Jake,” Roxy sighed, “We really owe you one.”

“Yeah, we do,” Dirk agreed, “But for now, we need to get you inside.” His voice was gentle, but firm, and Jake nodded, not even bothering to argue that he was okay. Dirk stood up slowly, hands under Jake’s arms to lift him as he did so, and the two stood still for a second as Jake swayed on his feet and fell against Dirk’s chest. Dirk simply wrapped one arm tightly around Jake’s waist, then the two started to move slowly back towards the house.

“Hey,” Dave said, nudging Jade gently to get her attention as they watched the others leave, “Does this always happen to him?”

“Depends how intense the magic he uses is,” Jade replied with a shrug, and she looked less worried now, “This is pretty much the worst he gets.”

“Right,” Dave said with a nod. He turned to look at Rose, who was following the group in silence, her face void of any emotion. “Hey, Rose, it’ll be okay,” he called out quietly, sure she was still worried despite her best attempts to hide it.

“For now,” she said with a shrug, “But you can’t stop the future, Dave. Something’s coming for us, and I don’t think there’s anything that can help us.” There was a dark look clouding her usually bright eyes, and she wrapped her arms tightly around herself as she spoke. The gesture made her look small, and powerless, so different to how she usually was, and it scared Dave slightly to see it. Before he could even try to reply or comfort her in some way, she picked up her walking pace a little to step past him and Jade, hurrying into the house after Roxy. By the time Dave and Jade got inside, Rose was disappearing out of the kitchen, Dirk and Jake already nowhere in sight, and Roxy was filling up at the kettle at the sink, whilst gazing blankly outside.

“Hey,” Roxy said, seeming to snap out of her thoughts suddenly and turning to look at Dave and Jade, “You two alright?”

“Yeah,” Dave said, and he really was feeling a little better now that he knew their house was protected. Jade nodded in agreement with a small smile. “We should go play video games or something,” he said, turning to Jade, “Like when we used to have sleepovers.”

Jade grinned widely. “Yeah, that sounds good,” she said, looking a little relieved that he’d provided something for them to do.

For the next hour or so, the two of them sat in Dave’s room, playing video games and talking quietly amongst themselves. Dave was far better at the games than Jade, and though she tried her best, it wasn’t exactly a fair fight. 

Dave put down the controller after one last game and turned to Jade with a victorious grin. “I win again,” he declared.

“You’re too good at this, it’s not fair,” Jade said with a soft laugh. She fell backwards dramatically, letting the controller fall out of her hand and onto the bed, and stared up at the ceiling in defeat. “I give up,” she declared.

Dave lay down beside her with a soft huff of laughter and smiled to himself. The two lay there, laughing amongst themselves for a few moments, until Dave was distarctred by a small tapping noise.

“D’you hear that?” He asked, sitting up and glancing in the direction of the noise, “I think it came from the window.”

“Didn’t hear anything,” Jade said with a shrug, but she sat up as well anyway. There was another noise, this one louder, and both of them jumped to their feet at the exact same time. Dave was the first to get to the window, throwing the curtains open just in time to see a small rock hit the glass.

“Who is that?” He muttered, leaning closer to the glass. It took him a few seconds to notice the boy standing on the street nearby, aiming rocks at his window though missing with most of them. “It’s that Karkat kid again,” he sighed, recognising the boy there. He reached out and threw the window open.

“Hey!” Karkat shouted instantly, “Can we talk?”

Dave let out a heavy sigh. “Fine!” He shouted, “I’m coming out!” He pulled the door shut again, and then turned to face Jade. “I’ll go see what he wants, won’t be long,” he said. 

“I’ll come,” Jade said, “You don’t know this kid, he could be anyone.”

“Yeah, okay,” Dave said. She was probably right; he still didn’t know who Karkat was, and there was still a chance he could be dangerous. So the two teens headed downstairs together, luckily not be spotted by anyone else, and crept out into the front garden. They met Karkat out on the street in front of the house a few moments later.

“Sup,”Dave said as they approached him, raising one hand in a casual wave.

“Hey, yeah, what the fuck?” Karkat snapped, “You’re family can’t go casting fucking magic like that!”

“What?” Dave asked, eyes flying wide open in surprise. Beside him he saw Jade jump back slightly in shock.

“Yeah, you idiot, whoever did that magic earlier, what the fuck did they think they were doing?” Karkat snaps, “That magic was strong enough to literally alert every other magical person in the area. My family live on the other side of town and we felt the fucking waves of magic energy as clear as if we lived next door! Casting magic like that is gonna get you revealed to humans if you keep fucking doing that!”

“I’m sorry... who the fuck are you?” Dave asked, “There aren’t any other magical people in the area, we keep track of all of them, I have no idea who you are.”

“I told you, I’m Karkat Vantas!” Karkat huffed tiredly, “My family are new to the area. We didn’t know there was anyone else magical in the area either until we felt your magic earlier.”

“But I…” Dave went to say something, but was cut off by a crash from behind him as someone threw open the front door of his house.

“Dave, Jade, get back!” Shouted Roxy’s voice, and then Dave’s sister appeared by their side, swinging a baseball bat in her hand. Dave had no idea where she’d even gotten it from.

“Get out of here!” Roxy declared, pointing the baseball bat at Karkat with a shaking hand. “I should have realised who you were the second Dave told me he’d met someone called Karkat. I know who you are; you’re a Vantas! Get away from here, don’t come back, and never tell your family where we live. Do you hear me?”

“I… I… why would I…” Karkat took a few steps back, muttering to himself in confusion, face falling.

“Never trust a Vantas, that’s what I was taught,” Roxy said, swinging the bat at Karkat a few times and smirking as he stumbles backwards. “You can tell your family that if any of them ever come here, they’ll regret it.”

“Roxy!” Jake snapped, having apparently appeared from somewhere, “This is isn’t like you, calm down.” He grabbed the bat from her, and turned to Karkat. “Leave, kid,” he said, “And don’t come back here. Got it?”

“I uh… yeah, got it,” Karkat muttered. Then he turned and quickly ran away. Dave watched him go, feeling slightly sad as he watched how fearfully he ran away.

“Roxy, what the fuck?” Dave snapped, turning towards him, “They’re another magical family! Aren’t we supposed to befriend them?” 

“Quiet!” Roxy hissed, nodding at a couple of normal humans who were walking down the street towards them, “Come on, inside, now.” She put a hand on Dave’s back, steering him back towards the house quickly as he walked, and Jade and Jake quickly followed after them. 

Once they were back inside, Roxy gathered everyone together in the living room. Dirk was quickly filled in on what had happened, screwing his face up a little bit at the mixture of emotions coming from everybody in the room.

“Dave,” Roxy said, sitting down by his side and putting a hand on his shoulder gently, “Whatever that kid told you, it’s not true. The Vantas family are… well… they’re dark magicians. They’re not safe to be around. They’re… they’re necromancers. And you can’t trust them.”

“Necromancers?” Rose asked quietly, sitting up a little stranger, “Necromancy is… that’s old, dark magic.”

“Yes, and it’s dangerous,” Roxy said.

“Do you think…” Dave started speaking, then trailed off slowly, not wanting to say what he was thinking.

“Yes,” Roxy said with a small nod, “I do think they could be what Rose’s vision are warning her of.” Behind her, Jake and Dirk both let out surprised murmurs. “What, you think I’m wrong?” She asked.

“No,” Dirk sighed, “You probably are right. I mean… destruction does appear to follow the Vantas’s wherever they go.” Jake let out a reluctant nod. 

“So we have to be careful around them, okay?” Roxy said , “All of us. And if you see them anywhere around, you tell me, Jake or Dirk. Got it?” Dave stared for a second more, not liking the way Roxy was talking to him, Rose and Jade like they were young children, but then let out a slow nod.

“Yeah, fine,” he sighed, “I guess you’re right.”

“Good,” Roxy said with a nod, “Now go do whatever it was you were doing. I need to go talk to some other people, find out if they know why the Vantas’s have moved here.” She got to her feet quickly, and rushed out of the room. Within a few moments he could hear her talking to someone on the phone.

Dave turned to Jade with a heavy sigh. “Video games?” He suggested slowly.

“Sure,” she said, sounding just as reluctant as he did. 

That night, after a group dinner that was filled with lots of fearful, awkward silences, Dave went to bed early, Jade still talking to Rose in the next room. He buried his face in the pillows with a small sigh, and tried to force himself to go to sleep for the next ten minutes. Eventually, he gave up, and rolled over onto his back to stare up at the ceiling with a sigh. For some reason, he couldn’t stop thinking about Karkat, and the way his face had fallen when Roxy had told him to leave. He had no idea who the kid really was, but he didn’t feel like he was evil like Roxy said. He couldn’t help feeling some sort of connection to Karkat, despite them barely knowing each other. But if Roxy he wasn’t to be trusted, he decided she must probably be right. And as he finally fell asleep, it was with a confused mixture of thoughts and emotions, Karkat’ sad-looking face still filling his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so excited to bring Karkat and his family into this story more... so excited. I have big plans for this boy.
> 
> Also I hate this chapter, like I rewrote it three times and I still hate it. The next chapter's going to be way more interesting, I promise. Thanks for sticking around if you've gotten this far in! :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave goes out to talk to the one person he's been told not to, Jade and Dave place a bet on Rose's romantic life, and Roxy seems to make some sort of disturbing discovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, this is a temporary note that'll be taken down soon. i just wanted to say this chapter hasn't been properly edited yet, and needs a chapter name and typo checking soon, but i just wanted to get this up before i go away for a few days at the end of this week. i'll try to get this chapter properly done soon but i hope this is good enough as an update to the story for now! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Dave went out for a run the next morning, something he always did when his head was always slightly too full of thoughts. It was a habit he’d picked up shortly after he’d gotten away from his Bro, when he was struggling too much with the memories of the things his Bro had done to him, and he’d needed to get away from the house and his family to try and process everything alone.

Running down the familiar streets alone, headphones pulled down low over his ears and music playing loudly, he was completely distracted from everything, focusing on nothing but each movement of his limbs and the feeling of his heart racing. He slowed to a jog and finally to a walk as he turned onto a new street, allowing himself a second to catch his breath. He ran a hand roughly through his hair, and winced slightly at the way that strands of it were sticking to his forehead with sweat. He leaned forward slightly, hands on his thighs as he took a few more deep breaths.

That was when he heard someone shouting his name. Instantly his heart skipped a few beats, chest hurting as it tried to sink back into its usual routine, and his breath was caught in his throat again. He tried to calmly tell himself that everything was okay, but the panic was already setting in. Then there was a hand falling heavily onto his shoulder, and he was spinning around wildly, hand scrabbling by his side until his fingers brushed the waistband of the shorts he was wearing and he realised there was no belt there, no sword hanging lazily from it, no cold steel of a blade to rest his hand against. He gasped, eyes flicking upwards to meet the eyes of his attacker, and barely recognised the confused looking face staring down at him for a second.

“Karkat?” He gasped after a second, finally putting a name to the face, “What the fuck, dude?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Karkat retorted, pulling his hand back from Dave’s shoulder and crossing his arms tightly over his chest. “You’re acting like I fucking attacked you or something.”

Dave’s hand was still pressed against his hip, fingers searching for the comfort of a sword, and he stumbled a few steps back as Roxy’s warnings about Karkat suddenly came back to him. “I uh, gotta go,” Dave said, taking more steps backwards, not wanting to turn his back on Karkat.

“Wait!” Karkat snapped, and the sound was enough to freeze Dave in place. “Are you okay?” He asked, slightly more quietly, though the kid seemed to have trouble keeping his voice at a normal volume.

“I’m fine,” Dave said, “Just gotta get home.”

“This is about your sister, isn’t it?” Karkat sighed, “Look, can you please tell her she’s wrong? We’re not bad people.”

“But you’re necromancers,” Dave replied, thinking a little more clearly now he was starting to calm down,” There’s never been a good necromancer before, dude.”

“Well, there has been, and you’re looking at him,” Karkat replied, gesturing at himself, and Dave thought he could spot the tiniest hint of a smirk on Karkat’s face. “Now, are you gonna let me talk, or are you just going to believe everything you get told about me without ever trying to find out the real truth?”

Dave stared for a second more, crossing his own arms to mirror Karkat’s defensive body language. He didn’t want to put himself or his family in danger, but something in him was far too curious about Karkat. He thought for a second more. And then he caved.

“Fine,” he huffed, “Go on then.”

“I’d rather not talk about magic in the middle of the fucking street where anyone could hear, thank you very much,” Karkat snapped. He looked around, and grimaced. “Come with me,” he reached out towards Dave, but seemed to think better of it when he flinched back from him. With a small roll of his eyes, he just turned, and headed off down the street.

Dave stared after him for a second. Was he really going to just follow after this person that he had been told was a threat to him and his entire family. Even as he was wondering that, he knew the answer was yes. He was just too curious about who Karkat really was.

Dave followed one pace behind Karkat the whole way, probably looking strange to passers-by, but wanting to be prepared for anything to go wrong at any second. He tapped his fingers on the sides of his legs anxiously as he walked. Deep down he knew that it was a bad idea to be following Karkat so blindly like that, and he could already hear Roxy’s voice in his head telling him how much of an idiot he was. But he just kept walking, trying not to worry and telling himself he’d be okay. Luckily, Karkat didn’t walk for long, and so Dave didn’t have a long way to follow him for, but then he was suddenly turning into the garden of a house, and leading Dave up a side path around the back.

“Uh, where the fuck are we?” Dave asked, looking around nervously as he realised Karkat was slowing and the two of them were alone in a small, dark alley down the side of the house. Karkat turned to look over his shoulder at him, and Dave instantly took an instinctive step back.

“My house,” Karkat huffed, “Obviously. I’m not just going into some random garden, am I?” He shook his head, and hurried onwards. “Now be quick, okay? If my family see me sneaking you into the garden -”

“They’ll hurt me?” Dave guessed.

Karkat stared at him despairingly. “No! They'll just invite you in for dinner. And trust me, that's worse.”

“How is that worse?” Dave muttered, but he was talking to himself; Karkat had already started to sneak towards the end of the garden. Dave was helpless to do anything but follow him.

At the bottom of the garden, he found Karkat standing under a tree. There was a ladder up the trunk of it, and Karkat hauled himself upwards without a word, beckoning Dave after him.

“You’ve got a treehouse, dude?” Dave asked as he climbed up after Karkat and found himself sat in a sort of wooden box balanced precariously in the branches, holes cut into several of the walls to act as windows.

Karkat shrugged. “Was here when we moved in. It’s a good place to get away from my brother.” There were a few old pillows clustered by the only wall of the treehouse that didn’t have holes in it, and he threw two in Dave’s direction. Dave caught one, the other bouncing off and hitting the wall behind him, and moved to sit on them awkwardly on the wooden floor. Karkat shifted a little closer to sit down properly, and seemed to notice the way that Dave leaned backwards away from him.

“You’ve really got some trust issues,” Karkat said.

_So would you if you’d been through what I have_, Dave thought to himself. Instead of saying that outloud, he just shrugged and muttered, “Don’t know you’re not gonna kill me.”

“Well I’m not. You’re just gonna have to take my word for it,” Karkat replied, throwing another pillow so that it glanced off of the side of Dave’s head. It was a friendly gesture, but even so Dave instantly threw his hands up to protect his face.

“So,” Dave said, pushing the pillow aside and pretending he wasn’t freaked out at all, “You gonna tell me why my entire family are apparently so wrong about you then?”

“Because your family,” Karkat hissed, curling one hand into a fist, “Still have the old, backwards, twisted impression of necromancy that so many people have. Other magicians never give necromancers the time to even explain themselves. You think I asked to get born with the world’s most hated magic powers? Of course I fucking didn’t! Just because I can manipulate death and bring back the dead doesn’t make me evil.”

“But, it’s dark magic,” Dave protested.

“Only if it’s used for dark purposes,” Karkat retorted with a small shrug, “And trust me, my family would never do that.”

Dave leaned forward, a little more interested now. Something about the frustration in the way that Karkat spoke was starting to convince him that maybe the boy really wasn’t lying. “So, tell me about your family,” he said.

Karkat huffed. “Well, there’s me. Youngest son, slight disappointment. That’s all you need to know about me for now. Then there’s Kankri, older than me by five years and the perfect son,” he hissed a little angrily, and calmed himself before continuing, “Kankri likes to try and teach everyone how to live a perfectly good, angelic life like him. You’d never catch him using dark magic. And then there’s my father. He led a small rebellion against a group of magicians who were using dark magic to kill humans once. But that was in his youth; he’s more tame now. More boring too.”

“What about your mom?” Dave asked.

Instantly, Karkat’s face, mouth crumpling downwards into a sad frown. He twisted a hand in the bottom of his sweater, pulling at the loose threads hanging from the hem, and was silent for a moment. “She died just after I was born,” he said after a while, “Cancer.”

“Shit, sorry, dude,” Dave said, now feeling a little bad for asking. Karkat just shrugged quietly, and pulled his knees up to his chest with a sigh.

“Gotta tell me about your family now,” he mumbled, “S’only fair.”

“Alright,” Dave sighed. He didn’t talk about his family a lot, but after what Karkat had told him, and the fact that they were trying to trust each other, he figured he may as well. “Uh, okay, well me and Rose are twins. Our mom, Rosaline, we haven’t seen in years, and then there’s our dad. He took Rose in when our mom left, and raised Rose, and I got sent off to live with our oldest brother, Derrick.” He paused slightly at the mention of his Bro, swallowing back a rush of fear before continuing, “Dirk, Roxy and Derrick have the same dad as me and Rose but a different mom. We don’t see any of our guardians anymore.” He purposefully didn’t mention anything else about his Bro. Best to leave that can of worms unopened.

“Holy shit, you’re family’s stranger than mine,” Karkat said softly.

“Yeah,” Dave nodded, “Bet we’ve probably both got a lot of fucked up shit in our families, though.”

“More than you’d believe,” Karkat replied with a sigh.

Dave stared at Karkat for a second. Despite everything Roxy had said, he saw no danger in Karkat, just another sad, broken boy like him, who was definitely keeping more to himself than he was admitting. After a second, he reached a decision and grinned, holding out a hand. “Then that makes us bros,” he said.

“W-what?”

Dave shrugged. “I’m saying I trust, you dude. Now, take my hand, and we’ll make a pact. We’ll keep meeting in secret, try and find a way to get our families to trust each other. Solve this for once, and then we can sort out whatever shit’s threatening my family.”

“I don’t think we can do all of that by ourselves,” Karkat said doubtfully, catching his lower lip between his teeth as he thought. The action was sort of adorable, and Dave glanced away as he felt his stomach swoop low slightly at the sight. He didn’t have the time to be thinking about Karkat like that.

“Sure we can,” Dave shrugged, “And we can at least try.”

Karkat stared at him like he’d lost his mind, but even as he was doing that he was also reaching out a hand and grasping onto Dave’s. His hand was warm and soft in Dave’s, but he barely got the chance to appreciate it before someone suddenly called out Karkat’s name from nearby, and Karkat pulled away from Dave to move and peer out of one of the makeshift windows.

“Fuck, that’s Kankri,” Karkat hissed,“He can’t find you here. He’ll want to know who you are, and he already knows your family are threatening us being here. Apparently your sister sent my father a very sternly email last night.”

“It’s alright, I got this,” Dave said with a smirk, leaning forwards next to Karkat. Down on the around, he spotted a quick glimpse of a boy in a bright red sweater staring upwards, and he quickly leaned sideways to avoid being spotted. “I can just stop time for a second and get out of the garden,” he said with a shrug, “It’s no big deal.”

“You can do that?” Karkat said, then let out a sigh of relief. “Thank fucking god. At least your power’s a little more useful than mine right now.” He leaned out the window and sighed. “Kankri’s gonna head up here in like two seconds,” he hissed quietly, “You gotta go. Oh, and… you’re not gonna tell you’re family we’re friends just yet, are you?”

“No,” Dave said, “They’re not gonna believe me and… I don’t want to have to hate you.” He grinned at Karkat, and raised a hand in a wave. “I’ll see you around,” he said, the corner of his mouth flicking upwards into a grin. Then he threw both hands out in front of him, narrowly avoiding smacking Karkat straight in the face, and felt time begin to slow at his fingertips. Beside him, Karkat froze completely, mouth slightly open, as if he’d gone to say something before Dave had stopped time.

As time came to a halt, everything slowly started to go red, his vision blurred by a strange sort of scarlet mistiness. He knew that the longer he kept time frozen, the harder it would get to see through the red. So he was quick to jump down out of the treehouse, quickly dodging around Karkat’s frozen brother, and then he dashed out of the yard. Once he was out of the house and a few metres down the road, he flicked a hand out in front of him, and the red faded away as things started to move again.

He dashed home as quickly as possible, stepping straight up to the front door and pulling his keys from his pocket to let himself inside. When he stepped inside, Roxy stepped straight out of the living room and crossed her arms.

“That was a long run,” she said suspiciously, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Went further than I’d planned,” Dave shrugged, “And I stopped at the top of the hill to have a break.” He was a little out of breath from running all the way back from Karkat’s house, and so it looked believable enough that he had been running. Even so, Roxy regarded him with a stare for a second, as if she didn’t quite believe him, but then nodded and turned to walk back into the living room. Dave let out a sigh of relief, and quickly headed upstairs to shower, and change his clothes.

When he came back downstairs a while later, Roxy was sat on the sofa, laptop balanced on her knees and typing with an angry expression on her face.

“You alright?” Dave asked, sitting down onto the other sofa.

Roxy sighed, looking up. “Messaging mom,” she sighed softly.

“Your mom or…” Dave asked slowly.

“Mine, obviously,” Roxy replied, “I’m never talking to yours and Rose’s mom ever again if possible. And Derrick of course. That asshole’s never getting a message from me.”

Dave flinched slightly at his Bro’s real name. “So, uh, why are you messaging your mom?” he asked instead to try and distract himself.

“Despite my complete lack of connection with the woman, I know for a fact she’s a very powerful seer,” Roxy said, “And anyone that strong would surely know if there was something dangerous heading towards their own child. Or, you’d hope so, at least.”

“Oh, right,” Dave nodded. He’d never met Roxy’s mom (she was Dirk’s mom too, though he’d been young when she left them), and he didn’t really plan on it. From what he’d heard, the woman was slightly out of control, and spent most of her life moving from place to place, writing weird novels, and falling in and out of a multitude of failed relationships. She’d had three kids with their dad, then left with no warning, and their father had spiralled into depression before falling in love with Rose and Dave’s mom and having two more children that he definitely didn’t need or want. And then Dave had ended up living with his Bro, and life had gotten worse than anyone had ever thought it would when Derrick had gotten completely out of control.

“Stop thinking about him,” Roxy said suddenly, as if she could tell that Dave’s thoughts had started to shift towards his Bro. She pushed her laptop away onto the coffee table, then patted the space next to her on the sofa. “C’mere,” she said with a gesture. Dave stared at her for a second, and then slowly walked over to sit down by her side.

“What?” He asked as he sat down.

“Haven’t checked in on you in a while,” she said, draping an arm over his shoulders and pulling him a little closer, “How are you? You know, up here.” She poked him gently in the side of the head, and he leaned away with a small smirk.

“I’m fine,” he said, “Seriously. Haven’t really thought too much about him in a while. Well, okay, I have, but I’m always thinking about him. He’s just sort of burned into my brain, like I always still kinda think I’m gonna wake up and realise I’m still living with him and this will all have been a dream. Still got the nightmares too, but that’s normal I guess.”

“You’re safe here, Davey,” Roxy said quietly, gently pulling his head down onto her shoulder and tucking a stray piece of his hair back into place behind his ear. “There’s not a single thing that’s gonna get between you and me, or any of the others. We’re all gonna be good, and we get through all this together. You’re never going back.”

“I know, Roxy,” he huffed, sitting up a little straighter. She’d told him it all a thousand times before. It didn’t help him get rid of the memories though. Nothing could erase the feeling of cold blades against his skin and nights spent trying to cry silently for fear of being caught whilst trying to treat his own broken bones or - he cut that thought off instantly as the memories started to spiral, and sighed.

“Alrighty,” Roxy said with a small shrug, “But you gotta keep me updated. Promise? Pinky promise?” She held out a hand, and Dave rolled his eyes fondly between his shades.

“Sure,” he smirked, linking his pinky with hers. She shook his hand up and down a few times, then unlinked their fingers.

“Alright, go have fun,” she said with a smile, reaching out to ruffle his hair despite his best attempts to escape her reach, “I think everyone else is in the garden.”

“Why are they in the garden?” Dave asked. Roxy just shrugged, and tugged her laptop back into her lap, a little distracted by a new message that had just come through. So Dave just left her to her conversation with her mother, and headed out through the back door into the garden.

Sure enough, the others were sat in a circle on the grass and appreciating the sunny day. As he approached, he noticed that Jade had a pile of flowers in front of her, and she was weaving them skillfully into flower crowns. Jade already had a wreath of flowers balanced atop her head, and as Dave approached she reached over to place another on top of Rose’s hair.

“Hey,” Dave said, stepping over and sitting down in the space between Rose and Jade with a smile. “What are you all doing out here?”

Jade shrugged. “It’s a nice day,” she said, picking up a few more flowers, and starting to weave them together. “I’ll make you a crown, Dave!” She declared happily.

“Oh, thanks,” Dave said with a soft laugh. After years of being friends with Jade, he’d gotten used to her weird little habits and things she would do. Having crowns of flowers created for him was nowhere near the strangest thing he’d experienced as Jade’s friend. Jade grinned, selecting a red flower from the seemingly endless pile of them she’d found, and started on her work.

Rose had a book perched in her lap, and she was flicking through it slowly, murmuring very quietly to herself occasionally and often raising the book far too close to her face to peer at specific sections of the text. Meanwhile, Dirk and Jake had laid out on their backs on the grass, and were holding hands between them, staring silently upwards at the few clouds drifting across the sky. Dave smiled faintly looking at them, before he was suddenly being distracted by a circle of flowers falling down low over his head and knocking against the top of his shades.

“Thanks Jade,” he laughed softly, squinting upwards at the few red petals he could see at the top of his vision.

“D’you think Roxy would want one?” She asked, distractedly tying together the stems of two flowers.

“Sure,” Dave replied with a shrug. Instantly Jade grinned, and scooped up the rest of her flowers eagerly. As she did so, Rose’s phone beeped loudly, and she scooped it up from beside her on the grass, reading through whatever was on the screen before smiling widely. “Who are you messaging?” Dave asked curiously as she started to type back eagerly.

Rose looked up quickly, wide-eyed and with the expression of someone who’d completely forgotten they were in the presence of other people. “Oh, just uh, Kanaya,” she said quietly, before glancing back down at her phone.

“Oh, that vampire you’re friends with?” Dave asked, “Cool. Ask her if she’s drained anyone recently.”

“Dave!” Rose snapped, looking back up despairingly, “Kanaya only drinks from those who give her consent, and it’s very rude to suggest otherwise. Vampires already have a bad enough reputation as it is.”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Dave said, looking over at Jade as the two pulled matching awkward faces at each other. Rose just nodded once, already back to typing.

Later, when they eventually went inside, leaving Dirk and Jake alone on the lawn, Jade pulled Dave aside in the kitchen.

“Stop being mean to her about Kanaya,” she whispered.

“I’m just teasing,” Dave said.

“Yeah but…” Jade nodded over at Rose, who was rifling through a cupboard of food with one hand whilst texting with the other, and raised her eyebrows a few times at Dave, who continued to stare blankly at her. “Oh, you’re completely oblivious!” Jade hissed, “They’re clearly dating.”

“What?” Dave cried, then clapped a hand over his mouth. Rose looked over and raised an eyebrow, but when they both waved it off she simply shrugged and turned away again. “What?” Dave repeated in a more appropriate tone of voice, “No they’re not. Rose isn’t… she’s not…”

“Oh my god,” Jade sighed, slapping a palm over her face. “What this,” she added. “Hey Rose! What did you say you were talking to Kanaya about?”

Instantly, Rose’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she glanced away. “Oh, nothing in particular,” she murmured, “Just… books.”

“Oh, okay,” Jade said, then turned back to Dave with a satisfied grin. “See? Can’t even talk about her without blushing!” She declared triumphantly.

“I don’t believe it,” Dave said, crossing his arms and frowning at his sister.

“Alright then, a bet,” Jade said, “If I’m right, I get to choose a suitable embarrassing forfeit for you, and if you’re right then you get that honour for me.”

Dave grinned. “You know I’m always on for some good, friendly gambling,” he said, and shook her outstretched hand.

“What are you two doing?” Rose called curiously from the other side of the kitchen.

“Nothing!” They both sung, before slinking out of the kitchen, clutching at each other and laughing.

They passed Roxy in the hallway, and both stopped in their tracks at the dark look on her face.

“You okay?” Dave asked softly, and gulped when she firmly shook her head.

“I have a feeling this might be more serious than we thought,” she said darkly, hands curled into fists, “I can’t promise you we’re not in danger anymore, kids. I think we need to call another family meeting.”

There was silence for a moment as the group of three stood there, Jade and Dave staring at each other with matching expressions of fear and curiosity. Somewhere in the kitchen, Rose called out curiously to them, and headed out towards the hallway to see what was going on. As she stepped into the weirdly silent group, determined to know what was going on, Jade and Dave shared one last look between them. Then Jade simply stretched up slowly on her toes to drop a flower crown onto Roxy’s head, wincing as she did so.

Roxy raised a hand to touch the petals gently.“Thank you, Jade,” she said quietly, her voice still heavy with some unknown deeper meaning, “Go and get your brother, please.”

Jade stared for a second, and then quickly turned and scampered away.

“Dave, Rose,” Roxy sighed softly once Jade was gone, “I think it’s time you knew something about our family."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really making it clear enough but, Derrick is Bro's real name. Dave calls him Bro, everyone else calls him Derrick. Also the Strilalonde's dad will just called either 'dad' or 'D'.  
This is mostly a filler chapter. Next chapter is ... spooky.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group make a trip to see a particularly powerful and dangerous magician to search for a solution to their incoming doom.

“You both know my mother is a seer,” Roxy sighed. She was perched awkwardly on the coffee table instead of on an actual seat, looking at Rose and Dave where they were sat on one sofa. Jade, Jake and Dirk were all clustered don the other one, listening in curiously.

“Yeah, she’s like Rose, right?” Dave shrugged.

“Not quite,” Roxy said slowly, “My mother’s powers are far more powerful. More powerful than anything else I’ve ever really seen before. While Rose has some control over her power, my mother has none. She can’t shut her power off if she needs a break, and her head is constantly full of visions. That’s… partly why she turned to alcohol just like your mom.”

“So, like… she can always see everything that’s gonna happen?” Dave asked.

“Kind of,” Roxy nodded, “She has a constant understanding of the fabric of reality around her and how everything ties together. And… right now, she’s picking up on something even more disturbing that what Rose is.”

“What is it?” Rose asked quietly, her voice weak and strained, and when Dave looked over at her he saw how pale she had gone. “Is it… something to do with… the end of this reality?”

“Yes,” Roxy said, “How did you know?”

“The visions are hard to distinguish, but I’ve got a vague idea,” Rose sighed softly.

“Wait,” Jake said from across the room, “The end of this reality. What does that mean?”

“My mother can literally feel the very fibres that makes up this plane of existence breaking apart,” Roxy said quietly, “It seems some higher force is moving between realities, creating tears in the fabric of reality as it does so.”

“There’s no way to stop that, is there?” Jade asked quietly.

“Unless we can find whoever’s causing this, then no, we can’t really do anything to prevent it,” Roxy sighed. As there was an instant uproar from the others, she held up a hand. “But… I might be able to protect us from it, secure us a corner of reality that will hold up strong enough to keep us safe and transport us somewhere new.”

“How do we do that?” Jake asked, “There’s only one person I know who could even offer up something as strong as that and… Roxy, no.”

“It’s the only way.”

“We can’t,” Jake insisted, “You know how dangerous that is.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Dave asked, “What’s Roxy planning?”

Across the room, Dirk had sat up a little stranger, blinking hazily as his usual headache started to worsen. “Roxy wants us to go and bargain with the Makaras” he said darkly. Jade, Dave and Rose instantly all turned to stare at Roxy, eyes wide and unsure. She returned their stare, her gaze steady, and then nodded once with a sigh of defeat.

“I’ve heard about them,” Dave said slowly, They’re-”

“Batshit mental,” Dirk jumped in.

“Was gonna say dangerous, but yeah, that works too,” Dave shrugged.

“There’s nothing else we can do,” Roxy sighed, “It’s either that or we just sit here and wait to die.”

“So, what? We just waltz up to the Makara’s and ask them to save our asses? They’re gonna want something in return,” Dirk said.

“Have to try,” Rose said, lifting her head up to stare at Dirk, “At this rate, we’re going to die anyway. And so will the rest of the world.” She glanced down at her hands again, picking at the chipped black nail polish on one of her nails, and said nothing more.

“Who’s in?” Roxy asked after a few moments of silence.

“I am,” Dave said with a nod. As usual, his face was as straight as ever, but Rose had obviously noticed his hands shaking with anxiety at the thought of what they were about to face, because she reached over and squeezed his hand gently.

“Me too,” Jake agreed, “If it’s the only way then… ww have no choice. I won’t let any of you die?”

“What about the others?” Jade asked quietly, “John, Jane, Kanaya… they’ll all die.”

Rose flinched at the mention of her friend’s name, clutching at the bottom of her skirt.

“We’ll do our best to help everyone else,” Roxy sighed, “But for now I’m concerned with saving us.”

“Let’s do it,” Dirk said quietly. Everyone turned to look at him in surprise, and he pushed his shades backwards into his hair to stare at them properly. “Better than just sitting around here, isn’t it?” He sighed softly, “Now you are all having far to many feelings for my liking, so I’m gonna go collapse upstairs for a bit.” He got up to his feet, stretching his arms.

“Alright,” Roxy said, “We go tomorrow morning.” She stood up and looked around at the others with a small sigh. “Make sure you’re well-rested,” she said quietly, before she stepped out of the room after Dirk.

There was a long silence in the room, and then Jake followed the others out, tugging Jade along with him. Then Rose let out a muffled sob.

“Oh,” was the only logical thing Dave could think to say for a second. Rose hardly ever cried, and it was always disturbing when she did.

“How can we be thinking about saving ourselves when everyone else we love will die?” She asked quietly, looking up at Dave, “I know you don’t talk to John a lot at the moment, but he’s one of your best friends. How can you be so okay with just letting him die along with the rest of humanity?”

“I’m not okay,” Dave admitted quietly, “I just don’t want to think about it.”

Rose rolled sideways, her head falling against his shoulder, and sniffed through her tears. “I think the time to start thinking about it might be now,” she said quietly, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ve got some things to say to people that I might not be able to say soon.”

She got up, brushing away her tears, and turned back to look at Dave slowly. “I guess your friend Karkat really was innocent after all,” she shrugged, before she turned and walked away.

In the silence that was left behind, Dave shakily lifted his shades and rubbed at his eyes, pretending he wasn’t crying, and he definitely wasn’t scared.

“Karkat,” he whispered softly. It was the first time he’d even thought about how this would affect the weird new boy he’d befriended. Was he really about to lose everyone in the world apart from the five other people in the house?

***********

The next morning, everyone woke early, and trudged around the house in a shared feeling of dread and sadness. Rose was silent through breakfast, eating only a few bites before giving up entirely, and Dirk had long since been completely overwhelmed by everyone else’s emotions, and had practically collapsed onto the table. At the side of the room, Roxy and Jake were packing things methodically into two bags: anything they might need in case of danger.

“Alright. We’re ready,” Roxy said eventually, picking up a bag and slinging it over her shoulder, whilst Jake hoisted up the other onto his back. “Dirk, you sure you don’t want one of your suppressant pills?”

Dirk lifted his head from his hands, reaching to pull of slides down from his head and pushing them over his eyes. “Nah, I’m good,” he said, “Might need my powers. I’ll be able to deal.”

“Alright,” she said with a nod, before tossing a packet of pills over and watching as they landed on the table, “Take them with you anyway, just in case.” Dirk nodded, shoving the pills into his pocket, and then got up to his feet to join the others, swaying a little as he did so.. The younger three kids joined the group, and then Jade reached out for Roxy to pass their magical map over to her.

“Alright, thanks,” Jade said, glancing down and pressing a finger to one specific dot. Her eyes widened as whatever the dot represented reached her mind, and she swallowed audibly. “Bec can get us there,” she said with a nod, looking down at where the dog was laid out under the table. She crouched, reached out to the dog and placed her hand on his head, eyes fluttering closed. The dog let out a heavy sigh, and his fur seemed to grow slightly green for a few seconds, then he trotted over to the centre of the group.

“He’s ready,” Jade said with a nod, “Touch his fur, all of you, and don’t let go ‘til your feet touch the floor.” Dave reached out, tangled his fingers in the dog’s fur, and watched as his family did the same too. There were a few seconds where the group just looked at each other as the dog started to glow again, and then a blinding white light wiped out Dave’s vision, and he felt the floor fall away beneath his feet.

For a few seconds it was just like falling through a bright white void, and then Dave felt his feet hit the ground heavily. He knees shook under him, almost giving way, but he managed to stay on his feet. When the light cleared, he found Jade and Jake looking completely unfazed, obviously used to that mode of transport. Dirk was leaning heavily against Jake’s side, Roxy looked like she had almost fallen, and Rose was swaying slightly. Oh yeah, and they seemed to all be standing in some huge, old castle.

Dave looked around curiously at the huge, grey walls, pillars and high ceilings. Then someone somewhere loudly cleared their throat, and everyone spun around to spot a man sat on what looked like a throne at the end of the room.

The man sat there was… terrifying. He was sat in the armchair sideways, leaning back against one arm of the chair with his long legs thrown over the other side, head turned sideways to watch the group. His long hair that curled around him had beads and feathers braided into it, and there was what seemed to be small bird skulls hanging on chains from his earrings. Dressed entirely like a skeleton and with white face paint covering most of his visible, dark tanned skin, he looked threatening to say the least. Most concerning of all, however, was the fact that his mouth was held closed by stitches in his skin.

“Uh, hi, Kurloz” Roxy said eventually, after they’d been standing there and just staring at him for a few seconds.

** _‘Hi? Hi? That’s how you introduce yourself to me? I am the most powerful magician you have ever had the honour to come face to face with and you greet me with ‘hi’? Laughable.’_ **

Kurloz’s voice echoed in their heads so loudly that it blocked out every other thought. Dave instantly raised his hands to cover his ears, despite knowing nothing could block out Kurloz’s psychic abilities, Rose’s face twisted into an expression of pain, and though Roxy hid it well, the way she flinched backwards made her emotions clear. Only Dirk seemed unaffected, staring Kurloz straight in the face and not reacting at all to the voice in his head. After years of always having a busy head, Dirk was almost relieved by the way that Kurloz’s voice cut through every other thought in his mind.

“Sorry,” Roxy said, “Greetings, Kurloz. We are honoured to be in your presence.” She dipped her head slightly so she wasn’t making complete eye contact with him, and then continued, “We’ve come to ask for your services.”

**_`I know why you’re here’_**, he replied, **_‘I know far more than you ever will. You’ve come to beg for me to protect your family from inevitable death. So tell me, Lalonde, what makes you think that you deserve to live more than anyone else on this planet?”'_**

My family has been through enough these last few years,” Roxy said, “We deserve happiness.”

**_‘And my family, what about us? Or all your magical friends, who live across the world? Will you not fight to save them too?’_** Kurloz leaned forward, a strand of beaded hair swinging across his face, and he lifted one long, thin finger to tuck it back behind his ear. Before Roxy could say anymore, he raised a hand for silence. **_‘Your love has left you blind, foolish and selfish. Weak.’_**

“I… I don’t… I just want to keep them safe,” Roxy said quietly.

**_‘I can offer you more,’_** Kurloz offered, **_‘You could live forever, just the six of you in one corner of reality, the only survivors left behind from this reality. Or I can give you the one thing that could help you stop all of this once and for all.’_**

“You know how to do that?” Roxy asked.

**_‘I know how to do everything, I just don’t want to,’_** Kurloz shrugged, **_‘I’m powerful enough to save myself from any of this. Every reality and dimension is open to me. This danger doesn’t threaten me, and I don’t care enough for this reality to try and save it. But you… you just might.’_**

“Roxy, don’t” Dirk warned her, “He’ll want something in return.”

**_‘Of course I will,’_** Kurloz’s laugh echoed through their heads far too loudly, and they all took a few steps back at the same time. **_‘But surely it’s worth it… if it saves you from the destruction of this entire reality.’_**

“You knew, didn’t you? You knew this reality was doomed?” Roxy asked.

**_‘I know everything,’_** Kurlox said, **_‘That’s not the point right now. Now do you want my help or not?’_**

“We do,” Roxy said with a nod, “But I have a question first.” When Kurloz nodded for her to continue, she asked, “The Vantas family. Are they any danger to us?”

Kurloz held up one finger to ask for a second, and his eyes rolled backwards in his head for a second so short it was almost invisible. **_‘Yes,’_** he said eventually, **_‘Not in the way you expect, and I won’t tell you more than that. Just know that they threaten your chance at safety entirely.’_**

“What, how?” Dave snapped. After everything they’d learned in the last day, Dave had begun to think that maybe his family would no longer have any problem with Karkat’ family. But apparently not.

**_‘That’s for me to know and you to find out,’_** Kurloz laughed, **_‘Now. Let’s make a deal.’_**

“What do you want?” Roxy asked warily.

Kurloz smirked, then leaned back further in his chair, and waved a hand in the air, eyes rolling back in his head until all that was visible were the whites of his eyes. There was a blinding flash of purple light, and then he held out a hand that now held a long, twisted dagger.

**_‘Use this to kill the person who’s tearing apart reality, and the energy in it will reverse the destruction they’ve caused,'_** he said,leaning forwards to hold it out towards her.

“And what do you get in return?” She asked.

** _‘Once you have made use of the dagger, I will send a messenger to you. All I ask is you give them the dagger, so I can take it back and make use of the energy it will absorb from whoever you have to kill.’_ **

“That’s it?” Roxy said in surprise.

“Roxy, be careful, it can’t be that simple,” Rose said.

**_‘Oh, but it is,’_** Kurloz shrugged, **_‘I don’t want this reality to be destroyed any more than you do. I’ve made a nice life for myself here, and I don’t fancy having to move realities again. Now take this. I have no more time for this today.’_** He waved the dagger around wildly, and Roxy took a few more steps forward. There was a moment where everyone held their breath in fear as Roxy wrapped her fingers around the dagger, and yet nothing happened. With a sigh of relief, she quickly stepped back,and rushed to join her family.

“Get back to Bec, quickly, I don’t trust this man,” she whispered to them quietly, and they all turned to rush away to where the dog was sat, waiting patiently, grabbing hold of his fur once again.

**_‘Make sure I get that dagger back,’_** Kurloz’s voice rumbled in their heads, just as the dog glowed green again, and everything flashed with a brilliant white light.

They all tumbled back onto the kitchen floor, landing in an ungraceful pile. Bec padded slowly away from the tangle of humans on the floor, and bounded away out of the room.

“You know,” Dave said, pulling an arm out from where it was crushed under Jake’s legs, “We’ve still got one problem.”

“What’s that?” Roxy murmured quietly, getting up to her feet to put the dagger onto the table and look down at it slowly.

“We’ve gotta work out how to find that person we’ve gotta kill,” Dave said.

Roxy turned to him. “I hadn’t even thought of that,” she said, “He knew! Kurloz knew we didn’t know where they were. This is useless.” She chucked the dagger down onto the table with a huff.

“I might know a guy who can help,” Dirk sighed, “But it’s not gonna be pretty. We still don’t exactly get along.”

“You don’t mean-” Roxy started.

“You know exactly who I mean,” Dirk grumbled, "We're gonna have to call in Hal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this needs proofreading and editing but i'll have to get that done soon. just wanted to post this so you guys could have some more of the story. i've been busy recently, so this fic's upload schedule is all over the place, but oh well.  
(i spilled sugar onto my laptop yesterday whilst writing this and now my keyboard's slightly fucked, so that's great)


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